LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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Hollinger Corp. 
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LAWS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE 



RELATING TO 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



COMPILED FROM 



PUBLIC STATUTES AND SESSION LAWS OF 

1891, 1893, 1895, 1897, 1899, 1901, 1903, 

1905, 1907, 1909. 




DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 



LAWS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE 



RELATING TO 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



COMPILED FROM 



PUBLIC STATUTES AND' SESSION LAWS OF 

1891, 1893, 1895, 1897, 1899, 1901, 1903, 
1905, 1907. 1909. 




DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 






concord, n. h. 

Ira C. Evans Co., Printers. 

1909. 



D. OF D, 

FEB 15 i9ia 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Required by 
law. 



Money for 
text-books and 
supplies, high 
school tuition, 
flags and other 
statutory re- 
quirements, — 
how raised. 



SCHOOL MONEY. 

A. Local School Money. 

The selectmen in each town shall 
assess annually upon the polls and 
ratable estate taxable therein, a sum 
to be computed at the rate of seven 
hundred and fifty dollars for every dol- 
lar of the public taxes apportioned to 
such town, and so for a greater or less 
sum. 

[For the public tax apportioned to 
your town, see Laws of 1907, also blanks 
for annual report to department of pub- 
lic instruction. Multiply apportionment 
for your town by 750, and the result will 
be money required by law.] 

The school board of each district in 
their annual report shall state in detail 
the sums of money which will be re- 
quired during the ensuing fiscal year 
for the purchase of text-books, scholars' 
supplies, flags and appurtenances, and 
for the payment of the tuition of the 
scholars of the district in high schools 
and academies in accordance with chap- 
ter 96 of the Laws of 1901, and for the 
payment of all other statutory obliga- 
tions of the district. The selectmen of 
the town, in their next annual assess- 
ment, shall assess upon the taxable polls 
and property of the district a sum suffi- 
cient to meet the obligations above 
enumerated and when collected shall 
pay the same over to the district treas- 
urer. 



p. S. 88:1, as 
amended by 
48, laws 1905. 



P. S. 88:2, as 
changed by 
52. laws 1909. 



School money 
may be used 
for what. 



Assignment to 
districts. 



Penalty for 
neglect of 
selectmen to 
assess, etc. 



SCHOOL LAWS. 

The sums so raised shall be appropri- 
ated to the sole purpose of maintaining 
public schools within the town [district] 
for teaching reading, writing, English 
grammar, arithmetic, geography, and 
such other branches as are adapted to 
the advancement of the schools, includ- 
ing the purchase of fuel and other sup- 
plies, the making of occasional repairs 
upon schoolhouses, appurtenances, and 
furniture, and the conveyance of scholars 
to and from school as provided by law. 

[Occasional repairs are those involv- 
ing a small outlay, not more than five 
per cent, of the total school money. 
For repairs which amount to remodel- 
ing, special appropriations should be 
made. For conveyance of pupils not 
more than 25 per cent, of all school 
moneys may be used. ] 

The selectmen shall assign to each 
district a proportion of such money, 
according to the valuation of the dis- 
trict for the year, or in such other 
manner as the town, at the annual 
meeting, shall direct, and shall pay 
over the same to the school board of 
the district. 

[In most cases there is but one dis- 
trict in a town. The selectmen there- 
fore will pay over the entire school 
assessment to the district treasurer to 
be paid out on the order of the school 
board.] 

When a guardian and ward reside in 
the same town, the selectmen shall 
assign the tax assessed upon the 
ward's personal property to the school 
district in which the ward lives and has 
his home. 

If the selectmen neglect to assess, 
assign, or pay over the school money as 
aforesaid, they shall pay for each neg- 
lect a sum equal to that so neglected to 
be assessed, assigned, or paid over, to 
be recovered by action of debt, in the 




p. s. 



p. s. 



:5. 



P. S. 88:6. 



SCHOOL MONEY. 



Penalty for 
illegal use or 
neglect to use 
on part of 
school board. 



The district 
may raise 
money addi- 
tional to that 
required by 
law. 



District shall 
determine 
salaries of 
officers. 



Selectmen 
shall assess. 



Dog tax. 



P. S. 88:8, as 
amended by 
52, laws 1909. 



name and for the use of the district by 
the school board. 

If the money so assigned and paid p. s. 88:7. 
over to the school board of any district 
is not expended by them according to 
law, they shall be fined not exceeding 
twice the sum so unexpended, or not 
legally expended, for the use of the 
district. 

[The school money must not only be 
legally expended, but it must be all 
legally expended in the maintenance of 
schools during the school year for which 
it was appropriated. School money 
cannot lawjully be laid up,] 

Any district may raise money for the 
support of schools in addition to the 
sum required by law, which shall be 
assessed, collected and paid over to the 
district as other school taxes ; and all 
money for the support of public schools, 
except that provided by section 1 of 
this chapter, and all moneys for the 
building, repair or alteration of school- 
houses, for the improvement of school 
grounds, and for any other purpose con- 
nected with the administration, support, 
equipment and improvement of the pub- 
lic schools, excepting purposes already 
provided for by statute, shall be raised 
only ii) a lawful meeting of the district. 

At its annual meeting each school 22:1, laws 
district shall determine and appoint the 1909. 
salaries of its school board and truant 
officer or officers, and the district clerk 
shall certify the same to the selectmen. 

The selectmen shall annually assess 22:2, laws 
upon the polls and ratable estate of the 1909. 
district a sum equal to the amounts de- 
termined by the district as prescribed 
in section 1, and shall pay over the 
same to the district treasurer. 

All moneys arising from the taxation p. s. 88:14. 
and licensing of dogs, remaining in the 
treasury of any town or city on the first 
day of April, annually, which is not due 




SCHOOL LAWS. 



Literary fund. 



Literary fund, 

distribution 

of. 



Literary fund 
— may be used 
for what. 



Literary fund 
— penalty for 
misuse of. 



to holders of orders given for loss of or 
damages to domestic animals by dogs, 
shall be applied to the support of the 
public schools, and shall be assigned to 
the districts as other school money. 

B, State School Money. 

All taxes collected by the state upon p. s. 88:9. 
the deposits, stock, and attending 
accumulations of depositors and stock- 
holders of savings banks, trust com- 
panies, loan and trust companies, loan 
and banking companies, building and 
loan associations, and other similar 
corporations, who do not reside in this 
state, or whose residence is unknown, 
shall be known as the '* literary fund.*' 

The state treasurer shall assign and p. s. 88:io. 
distribute, in November of each year, 
the literary fund among the towns and 
places in proportion to the number of 
scholars not less than five years of age 
who shall, by the last reports of the 
school boards returned to the superin- 
tendent of public instruction, appear to 
have attended the public schools in such 
towns and places not less than two 
weeks within that year. 

No unincorporated place shall receive ?• S. 88:ii. 
its portion until a treasurer or school 
agent shall have been chosen to receive 
and appropriate the same as required 
by law. 

The portion of the literary fund so p. s. 88: 12. 
received by any town or place shall be 
assigned to the districts as other school 
money, and shall be applied to the main- 
tenance of the public schools during the 
current year ; one fifth part thereof 
may be applied by the school board to 
the purchase of blackboards, diction- 
aries, maps, charts, and school appa- 
ratus. 

If any town or incorporated place or p. S. 88:i3. 
the agent of any unincorporated place 
shall apply any money so received to 



SCHOOL MONEY. 



State aid- 
towns to 
receive. 



State aid — 
average at- 
tendance 
basis. 



State aid — 
(lualified 
teacher basis 



any other purpose, the town, place, or 
agent so offending shall refund to the 
state treasury double the sum so mis- 
applied. 

No appropriation of money provided 
for in sections 2 to 3 inclusive of this 
act shall be held to apply to towns 
having an equalized valuation of more 
than $7,000 per pupil of average attend- 
ance for the year preceding; or whose 
population by the last published federal 
census is more than 3,500 ; or whose 
schools have been maintained less than 
an average of thirty weeks for the school 
year next preceding ; or whose tax rate 
for school purposes is less than $4.50 on 
one thousand dollars of equalized valu- 
ation ; 'provided, however ^ that the last 
two clauses shall not be in force until 
July 15, 1911:— 

There shall annually in the month of 
December be apportioned to all towns 
not excluded by the terms of section 1 
and as hereafter provided state money 
as follows: 

I. To all towns having an equalized 
valuation per pupil of average attend- 
ance of less than $2,000, the sum of 
$1.75 per school week for every twenty- 
five pupils or major part thereof of 
average attendance for the year next 
preceding. 

II. To all towns having an equalized 
valuation per pupil of $2,000 or more 
and less than $3,000, $1.50. 

III. To all towns having an equalized 
valuation per pupil of $3,000 or more 
and less than $4,000, $1.25. 

IV. To all towns having an equalized 
valuation per pupil of $4,000 or more 
and less than $5,000, $1.00. 

V. To all towns having an equalized 
valuation of $5,000 or more and less than 
$7,000, per pupil, $0.75. 

When any district shall employ gradu- 
ates of a New Hampshire Normal 
school, or of any Normal school in 



158 :1, laws 
1909. 



158:2, laws 
1909. 



158:3, 
1909. 



laws 



State aid — 
district super- 
vision and 
high school 
tuition. 



State aid — 

appropriation 

for. 



Penalty for 
not making 
returns. 
Minimum 
school year. 



SCHOOL LAWS. 

another state of equivalent grade, or 
persons holding a permanent New Hamp- 
shire state teacher's certificate, it shall 
receive a further sum of $2.00 per week 
for every teacher so employed. 

There shall annually be reserved and 
set aside from the appropriation pro- 
vided for by this act such sums as shall 
be needed for carrying out the provis- 
ions of chapter 77, Session Laws of 1899, 
relating to district supervision, and of 
chapter 96, Session Laws of 1901, relat- 
ing to high school tuition. 

The sum of $80,000 annually is hereby 
appropriated to carry into effect the 
provisions of this act, and any portion 
of such appropriation as shall remain 
unexpended in any year shall remain in 
the state treasury for use in subsequent 
years, and if in any year the above 
appropriation and accumulated surplus 
shall prove insufficient, then towns 
having the highest equalized valuation 
per pupil shall be omitted in order from 
the distribution provided for in sections 
2 and 8. 

The sum appropriated by section 5 
shall be in place of the annual appro- 
priations of $25,000 and $8,000 provided 
by chapter 77, Laws of 1899, and chapter 
96, Laws of 1901, and amendments 
thereto, respectively, and such appro- 
priations shall be discontinued upon the 
passage of this act. 

All money appropriated by this act 
shall be expended under the supervision 
of the governor and council. 

No town shall receive any benefit 
under this act nor any portion of the 
literary fund unless its returns have 
been made to the superintendent of 
public instruction, as required by chap- 
ter 92, section 13, of the Public Statutes, 
nor unless its schools have been main- 
tained at least twenty weeks during the 
school year next preceding. 



^ 



158 :4, laws 
1909. 



158 :5, laws 
1909. 



158:6, laws 
1909. 



158:7, laws 
1909. 



77:7, laws 
1899. 



SCHOOL MONEY. 



High school 
tuition rebate. 
See also under 
High Schools. 



[Such sum as may be needed] shall 
be appropriated annually from the state 
treasury for the payment of tuition in 
high schools and academies, to be paid 
by the state treasurer in the month 
of December of each year to the treas- 
urers of such towns as are entitled, and 
in such manner as is hereinafter pro- 
vided, upon a sworn certificate of the 
superintendent of public instruction of 
the sums due. 

Towns whose rate of taxation for 
school purposes in any year is $3.50 or 
more on $1,000, and whose average rate 
of taxation for all purposes for five 
years next preceding is $16.50 or more 
on $1,000, shall receive a share of said 
appropriation as follows: 

If the tax rate is from $16.50 to $17.49, 
one tenth of the tuition paid. 

If the tax rate is from $17.50 to $18.49, 
two tenths of the tuition paid. 

If the tax rate is from $18.50 to $19.49, 
three tenths of the tuition paid. 

If the tax rate is from $19.50 to $20.49, 
four tenths of the tuition paid. 

If the tax rate is from $20.50 to $21.49, 
five tenths of the tuition paid. 

If the tax rate is from $21.50 to $22.49, 
six tenths of the tuition paid. 

If the tax rate is from $22.50 to $23.49, 
seven tenths of the tuition paid. 

If the tax rate is from $23.50 to $24.49, 
eight tenths of the tuition paid. 

If the tax rate is from $24.50 to $25.49, 
nine tenths of the tuition paid. 

Over $25.49, the whole of such tuition. 



96:3, laws 
1901, as 
amended by 
158:4, laws 
1909. 



Summary of Sources of Regular 
School Revenue. 
A. Local. 

1. Money required by law. 



10 



Definition of 
term "dis- 
trict." 



Districts to 
be corpora- 
tions. 



Districts may 
raise money 
other than 
regular school 
money for 
what. 



SCHOOL LAWS. 

2. Money for statutory require- 

ments. 

3. Additional raised by district. 

4. Dog tax. 

5. Assessment for salaries of 

officers. 

6. In some cases local revenue 

peculiar to towns or dis- 
tricts in which it appears. 



B. State. 



7. Literary fund. 

State aid covering 

8. General distribution. 

9. District supervision rebate. 
10. High School tuition rebate. 

11. 

SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 

Each town shall constitute a single 
district for school purposes, provided, 
however, that districts organized under 
special acts of the legislature may retain 
their present organization, and the word 
''town " wherever used in the statutes 
in connection with the government, 
administration, support, or improve- 
ment of the public schools shall be held 
to mean district. 

All districts legally organized shall be 
corporations, with power to sue and be 
sued, to hold and dispose of real and 
personal property for the use of the 
schools therein, and to make necessary 
contracts in relation thereto. 

School districts may raise money to 
procure land for schoolhouse lots, and 
for the enlargement of existing lots, to 
build, purchase, rent, repair, or remove 
schoolhouses and outbuildings, to pro- 
cure insurance, to plant and care for 
shade and ornamental trees upon school- 
house lots, to provide suitable furniture. 



1 



p. S. 89:1, as 
amended bv 
23, laws 1909. 



P. S. 89:2, as 
amended by 
23, laws 1909. 



P. S. 89:3. 



I 



Districts may 
hire money — 
for what — 
how. 



District taxes. 



District high 
school. 



P. S. 89:4, as 
amended by 
138, laws * 
1909. 



SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 11 

books, maps, charts, apparatus, and 
conveniences for schools, and to pay- 
debts. 

School districts may hire money for 
building or repairing schoolhouses, and 
procuring and grading lots for the same 
upon the promissory notes or bonds of 
the district. If the money is so hired 
upon the note or notes of the district, 
said note or notes shall be signed by the 
district treasurer and by the school 
board, and if upon the bonds of the dis- 
trict, said bonds shall be issued under 
and by virtue of, in conformity with, 
and subject to limitations of chapter 43, 
Laws of 1895, entitled ''The Municipal 
Bonds Act.'' 

In the assessment of school-district P. S. 89:6. 
taxes, every person shall be taxed in the 
district in which he lives for his poll and 
his personal estate subject to taxation 
in town. Real estate shall be taxed in 
the district in which it is situated. 

The selectmen may make a new in- 
voice of all the property in the district 
when necessary for the just assessment 
of such taxes. 

If such taxes are assessed after the 
first day of July in any year upon the 
property of non-residents, the collector 
shall send to the owners of said property, 
or to their agents, if known, a bill of 
their taxes within two months after the 
delivery of the list to him, and shall, at 
the expiration of four months after such 
deliveiy, advertise and sell the property 
on which the taxes have not been paid 
in the same manner as if such taxes had 
been assessed in April preceding. 

Any school district may, by vote or p. s. 89:9. 
by-law, establish and maintain a high 
school in which the higher English 
branches of education and the Latin, 
Greek, and modern languages may be 
taught. 



p. S. 89:7. 



P. S. 89:8. 



12 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Joint schools 
of two or more 
districts. 



Contract with 
academy or 
other literary 
institution. 



Two or more adjoining districts in the P. S. 89 :io. 
same or different towns may make con- 
tracts with each other for estabhshing 
and maintaining jointly a high or other 
public school for the benefit of their 
scholars, and may raise and appropriate 
money to carry the contracts into effect; 
and their school boards, acting jointly or 
otherwise, shall have such authority and 
perform such duties in relation to schools 
so maintained as may be provided for in 
the contracts. 

Any school district may contract with p. s. 89 :ii. 
an academy, seminary, or other literary 
institution located within its limits or in 
its immediate vicinity, for furnishing 
instruction to its scholars ; and 1?he 
school money may be used to carry the 
contract into effect. 

[Contracts made with corporations 
outside the state are not considered 
valid, except in the cases specified in 
the sections below.] 

Any school district may make con- 
tracts with any academies or high 
schools or other literary institutions 
located in the state for furnishing in- 
struction to its scholars; and such school 
district may raise and appropriate 
money to carry into effect any contracts 
in relation thereto. Then every such 
academy or high school or literary in- 
stitution shall be deemed a high school 
maintained by such district, if approved 
by the superintendent of public in- 
struction in accordance with section 4 of 
this act. 

The school districts in the town of 
Walpole, Mason, Rollinsford and Con- 
way may make contracts with Bellows 
Falls, Vt., Townsend, Mass., Berwick 
Academy, Me., and Fryeburg Academy, 
Me., respectively, for furnishing in- 
struction to their pupils of high school 
grade, and may raise and appropriate 
money to carry such contracts into 
effect. 



96:6, laws 
1901, as 
amended by 
90, laws 1905. 



122, laws 
1907. 



SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 



la 



Towns border- 
ing on state 
line may con- 
tract with in- 
stitutions in 
another state. 
Entitled to 
rebate from 
state under 
96, laws 1901. 



Any school district in towns bordering 
on the state Hne, not having a high 
school or school of corresponding grade, 
may make contracts with high schools or 
academies in towns and cities located 
out of the state, whenever by reason of 
distance and transportation facilities 
such schools outside the state are more 
accessible to the pupils, and may raise 
and appropriate money to carry such 
contracts into effect, provided, however, 
that every such academy or high school 
shall be approved by the superintendent 
of pubhc instruction, in accordance with 
section 4, chapter 96, session Laws of 
1901, and acts in amendment thereof and 
addition thereto. 

Any district in a town bordering on the 
state line not maintaining a high school 
or school of corresponding grade shall 
pay' for the tuition of any child, who, 
with parents or guardian resides in said 
district and who attends a high school 
or academy located out of the state, 
whenever by reason of distance and 
transportation facilities such schools 
outside the state are more accessible to 
the pupils, provided, however, that every 
such academy or high school shall be 
approved by the superintendent of 
public instruction, in accordance with 
section 4, chapter 96, session Laws of 
1901, and acts in amendment thereof 
and addition thereto, and the parents 
or guardian of such child shall notify the 
school board of the district in which he 
resides of the high school or academy 
which he desires to attend, and the ap- 
proval of the school board shall be 
necessary in all cases arising under this 
section. 

Towns paying for tuition of scholars 
in high schools or academies out of the 
state shall be entitled to share in the 
annual appropriation of the state for 
such tuition, and in the literary fund, 



96:7, laws 
1901, as 
amended by 
100, laws 
1909. 



96:8, laws 
1901, as 
amended by" 
100, laws 
1909. 



96:9, laws- 
1901, as 
amended by- 
100, laws 
1909. 



14 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



n 



Admission of 
scholars from 
other dis- 
tricts. 



Districts situ- 
ate in two or 
more towns. 



Dissolution of 
special dis- 
trict. 



SO called, in the same manner as towns 
paying for the tuition of children attend- 
ing a high school or academy in the 
state. 

Each district may determine upon P. S. 89: 12. 
what terms scholars from other districts 
or towns may be admitted into its 
schools. If the district neglects to make 
such determination, the school board 
may do it. 

Every district situate in two or more P- S. 89:13. 
towns shall be entitled to its just pro- 
portion of school taxes, income of school 
funds, literary fund, and dog tax in each 
town, according to the valuation of polls 
and property taxable therein. 

Any school district organized under P. S. 89:i4. 
a special act of the legislature may, by 
a majority vote of the qualified voters 
present and voting at a legal meeting, 
dissolve its corporate existence and 
unite with the town district. 

In such case the town district so P. S. 89:15. 
formed shall forthwith take possession 
of the schoolhouses, lands, apparatus, 
and other property owned and used for 
school purposes by the district so dis- 
solved which the district might lawfully 
sell or convey. 

The property so taken, and also like 
property of the district to which the 
special district is united, shall be ap- 
praised by the selectmen of the town, 
and at the next annual assessment a tax 
shall be levied upon the whole town 
district equal to the amount of the whole 
appraisal ; and there shall be remitted 
to the taxpayers of each district the 
appraised value of its property. 

If a district so dissolved is formed of P- S. 89: 17. 
parts of two or more towns, an equit- 
able apportionment of its assets and lia- 
bilities between such parts shall be made 
by the selectmen of the towns in which 
they are situate, acting as a joint board, 
within sixty days after the dissolution. 



p. S. 89:16. 



SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 15 

If such joint board fail to make an p. S. 89:i8. 
apportionment within the time Hmited 
therefor, any taxpayer within the dis- 
trict may apply by petition to a judge 
of the supreme court for the appoint- 
ment of a referee to make the appor- 
tionment. 

The judge shall appoint a time and P. S. 89:19. 
place of hearing upon the petition, and 
order notice thereof to be given to all 
parties interested, and after hearing 
them he shall appoint a referee. 

The notice shall be served by posting P. S. 89:20. 
copies of the petition and order thereon 
in at least two public places in each of 
said parts, and by giving to the clerk of 
the dissolved district, and the clerk of 
each town district in which any part 
thereof is located, like copies ten days 
at least before the day of hearing. 

The referee shall cause notice of his P- S. 89:21. 
hearing to be given to all parties inter- 
ested, in the same manner as is pro- 
vided in the preceding section. He shall 
hear the parties, make his report in 
writing, and file a copy thereof with the 
clerk of the dissolved district and the 
clerk of each town interested; and the 
report, so made and filed, shall be final. 

Upon receiving a copy of the appor- P. S. 89:22. 
tionment, the selectmen shall assess 
upon that part of the district within 
their town the amount for which it is 
charged, and cause the same to be 
collected and paid to the town district 
in which the creditor part of the dis- 
solved district is situated. 

The town district shall take the prop- p. S. 89:23. 
erty and assets of that part of the 
dissolved district which is situate in 
such town district, and the selectmen of 
the town shall assess and remit taxes 
with reference to the property so taken, 
and like property of the town district, 
the same as in other cases. 



16 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Maintenance 
of high 
schools in dis- 
solved special 
districts. 



The corporate powers of a district 
shall continue for the purpose of set- 
tling up its affairs and of holding, 
managing, and enjoying any property 
held by it in trust, notwithstanding 
its dissolution, but the school board of 
the district of which it forms a part 
shall be its agents to expend the 
income of any such trust property that 
is devoted to the support of schools. 

The school board shall first give to 
such district or districts such term or 
character of schooling as would be just 
and reasonable if no such fund were in 
existence, and only use the income to 
lengthen the school or schools, or to 
carry out the purposes of the trust under 
which the funds are held. 

Any justice of the peace may, upon 
application of three or more voters, 
resident within the limits of the dis- 
solved district, call a meeting thereof in 
the same manner as other school district 
meetings are called, at which a modera- 
tor, clerk, and agents may be chosen, 
and any other business transacted for 
the purposes mentioned in section 24 of 
this chapter. 

The records of dissolved school dis- 
tricts whose corporate existence is not 
continued for any purpose shall be re- 
turned by the clerks of such districts to 
the town clerk's office for preservation 
with the public records of the town. 

Whenever any school district organ- 
zied under a special act of the legisla- 
ture shall vote to abolish such district 
and to unite with the town district, if 
said town district shall vote to receive 
said special district, if said special dis- 
trict has for the five years next preced- 
ing such vote maintained a high school, 
it shall be incumbent on the town dis- 
trict with which it unites to thereafter 
keep and maintain within the limits of 
said special district a high school for at 



P. S. 89:24. 



P. S. 89:25. 



P. S. 89:26. 



P. S. 89:27. 



64:1, laws 
1891. 



SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 



17 



Annexation of 
territory situ- 
ate in one dis- 
trict to an- 
other district 
for school 
purposes. 



least thirty-four weeks in each year, 
and of equal grade to that which had 
been previously maintained therein by 
such special district, said high school to 
be open to all scholars in the town dis- 
trict, of suitable age and qualifications. 

It shall be the duty of said town dis- 
trict to raise and appropriate each year 
thereafter sufficient money in addition to 
the school money which the town in 
which it is situated may raise, to 
properly maintain such high school, or 
schools, as may be established under the 
preceding section. 

Any high school hereby estabHshed 
may be discontinued or the location 
thereof changed, by the supreme court, 
on petition of the school board of the 
town district in which it is located, after 
such notice as the court may order, if 
it shall appear that the educational 
interests of the town district require 
such discontinuance or change. 

Any person interested in severing part 
of any town therefrom and annexing it 
to another town, or school district 
therein, for school purposes, may apply 
therefor by petition to the selectmen of 
the town from which it is proposed to 
sever such territory, and to the select- 
men of the town to which it is proposed 
to annex the same. 

It shall be the duty of said selectmen, 
upon notice to such petitoners and to the 
school boards of the respective towns 
and school districts interested in the 
proposed transfer, to hear the parties, 
and determine whether the reasonable 
accommodation of such petitioners or 
others requires such transfer, and to 
make return of their findings to the 
clerks of their respective towns in 
writing within thirty days. 

If a majority of each of said boards of 
selectmen report in favor of such trans- 
fer, they shall sign a certificate of that 

2 



64 :2, laws 
1891. 



64:3, laws 
1891. 



72 :1, laws 
1893. 



72:2, laws 
1893. 



72:3, laws 
1893. 



18 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



fact, describing such territory, and stat- 
ing that it is annexed to such adjoining 
town, or district therein for school pur- 
poses, which certificate shall be recorded 
by the town clerk of each town. 

Any territory now or hereafter an- 
nexed for school purposes to an adjoin- 
ing town or school district therein, may, 
upon proceedings such as have been pre- 
scribed in the foregoing sections of this 
act, be restored to the town or district 
from which it has been severed. 

The annexation of territory under this 
act shall have the same force and valid- 
ity as if made by a special act of the 
legislature. 

The selectmen and collector of any 
town to which part of any other town 
is now or may hereafter be annexed 
for school purposes shall have the 
same powers and duties in respect to 
such annexed territory, of furnishing 
blank inventories and of assessing and 
collecting taxes for school purposes, 
and the inhabitants and owners thereof 
shall for such purposes be subject to 
the same liabilities, as if such territory 
were in the town to which it is or may 
be annexed. 

Section 6 of chapter 72 of the Session 
Laws of 1893 shall not apply to special 
districts, but only to town districts, and 
all special taxes voted by said districts 
shall be assessed and collected in the 
same manner as they were assessed and 
collected prior to the enactment of said 
chapter 72. 

The selectmen of any town, and the 
school board of any high school or other 
special district in the same town, may, 
upon petition of persons interested, 
after notice to the school board of the 
town school district of such town, and 
after hearing the parties, unite parts 
of either district to the other, a major- 
ity of the board of selectmen and a ma- 



72:4, laws 
1893. 



72 :5, laws 
1893. 



72:6, laws 
1893. 



72:6, laws 
1893, as 
amended by 
26, laws 1897. 



72 :7, laws 
1893, as 
amended by 
75, laws 1895. 



SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 19 

jority of the school board of such special 
district, and a majority of the school 
board of the town school district con- 
curring therein, and their decision in 
writing being recorded on the town 
records. 

Summary of Chief Powers of District. 

1. May raise money for general 
school purposes in addition to that 
required by law. 

2. May raise money for buildings 
and lots. 

3. May hire money for schoolhouse 
construction. 

4. May establish high school. 

5. May contract with other dis- 
tricts for maintenance of joint 
schools. 

6. May contract with literary insti- 
tution for furnishing tuition. 

7. May determine on what terms 
pupils from other districts may 
be admitted to its schools. 

8. May locate schoolhouses, fix 
salaries of school board and tru- 
ant officers. 

Some Things a District May Not Do. 

1. Transcend any statutory require- 
ment. 

2. Fix length of school year. 

3. Fix salaries of teachers. 

4. Establish and locate or discontinue 
common schools. 

III. 

MEETINGS AND OFFICERS OF SCHOOL 
DISTRICTS. 

'lime of an- A meeting of every school district p. s. 90:i. 

iiuai meeting, shall be holden annually between the 
first day of March and the twentieth 



20 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Special meet- 
ing. 



Place of meet- 
ing. 



Warrant for 
meeting. 



121, laws 
1907. 



day of April, inclusive, for the choice 
of district officers and the transaction 
of other district business. 

A special meeting of a school district P. S. 90:2. 
shall be holden whenever, in the opinion 
of the school board, there is occasion 
therefor, or whenever ten or more 
voters, or one sixth of the voters of the 
district, shall have made written appli- 
cation to the school board therefor, set- 
ting forth the subject-matter upon 
which action is desired. 

No village district or precinct, school 
district, highway district, fire district 
or other like subdivision of a town, shall 
raise or appropriate money at any 
special meeting of the inhabitants 
thereof, except by vote by ballot, nor 
unless the ballots cast at such meeting 
shall be equal in number to at least one 
half of the number of legal voters of 
such district at the regular meeting 
next preceding such special meeting; 
and if a check-list was used at the last 
preceding regular meeting, the same 
shall be used to ascertain the number of 
legal voters in said district; and such 
check-list, corrected according to law, 
may be used at such special meeting 
upon request of ten legal voters of the 
district. 

School-district meetings may be held 
at the usual place where town meetings 
of the town are held, or at such other 
suitable place as in the opinion of the 
officers calling the meeting will best 
accommodate the voters. 

They shall be warned by the school 
board, or, in cases authorized by law, 
by a justice of the peace, by a warrant 
addressed to the inhabitants of the dis- 
trict qualified to vote in district affairs, 
stating the time and place of the meet- 
ing and the subject-matter of the busi- 
ness to be acted upon. 



p. S. 90:3. 



P. S. 90:4. 




SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 21 

The officers issuing a warrant for a P. !^. 90:5. 
district meeting shall insert therein any 
subject-matter for which application 
has been made to them in writing by ten 
or more voters, or by one sixth of the 
voters of the district. 

The school board or justice issuing a p. s. 90:6. 
warrant shall cause an attested copy of 
it to be posted at the place of meeting, 
and a like copy at one other public place 
in the district, fourteen days before the 
day of meeting. 

If the school board does not cause a P. s. 90:7. 
warrant for the annual meeting to be 
posted on or before the second Tuesday 
of March, in any year, or for a special 
meeting within ten days after appli- 
cation therefor is made to them, a jus- 
tice of the peace, upon application of ten 
or more voters, or of one sixth of the 
voters of the district, may issue such 
warrant and cause it to be posted. 

The warrant, with a certificate there- P. s. 90:8. 
on, verified by oath, stating the time 
and places when and where copies of 
it were posted, shall be given to the 
clerk of the district at or before the 
time of the meeting, and shall be re- 
corded by him in the records of the 
district. 

Qualification Any person, whether male or female, P. s. 90:9. 

for voting. 1^^^ jj^ ^jj other respects except sex 

qualified to vote in town affairs, may 
vote at school-district meetings in the 
district in which such person has resided 
and had home three months next pre- 
ceding the meeting. 

Checklist at Upon petition of ten legal voters of p. s. 90:io. 

school meet- any district, presented in January, or 

ings. if the district at its annual meeting 

shall have voted that a check-list be 
used at future meetings, the school 
board shall make, post, and correct a 
list of the legal voters in the district, 
as supervisors are required to do in 
regard to the list of voters in their 



22 SCHOOL LAWS. 

towns ; and such list shall be used and 
checked, at the election of officers and 
otherwise, at the annual meeting of the 
district, as in case of town meetings. 

[Section 10 was amended by chapter 97, laws 18 
97 of Session Laws of 1895, as follows: 

That section 10 of chapter 90 of the 
Public Statutes shall not be applicable 
to any special school district in this 
state, unless a petition for a check-list 
shall be signed by five per cent, of the 
legal voters of the district.] 

Penalty for il- If any person under the age of twenty- p. s. 90 :ii. 

legal voting. ^^^ years, or any alien not naturalized, 
or any person who has not resided and 
had his home in the district for three 
months and in the town for six months 
preceding, shall vote in any district 
meeting, or if any person shall give in 
more than one vote for any officer voted 
for at the meeting, or if any person, 
being under examination before the 
school board as to his qualifications as 
a voter, shall give any false name or 
answer, he shall be fined not exceeding 
thirty dollars, or be imprisoned not ex- 
ceeding three months. 

Officers. The officers of every school district P. s. 90:i2. 

for which the law does not otherwise 
provide shall be a moderator, a clerk, 
a school board of three persons, a treas- 
urer, and one or more auditors, and such 
other officers and agents as the voters 
may judge necessary for managing the 
district affairs. 

While any district maintains a high p. s. 90: 13. 
school or unites with another district in 
maintaining one, it may have a school 
board consisting of three, six or nine 
members, as it shall determine by vote 
or by-law. Whenever it ceases to main- 
tain or to unite in maintaining a high 
school, it shall thereafterwards elect 
only one member to the school board 
each year to fill vacancies occurring 
from expiration of term of service, so 



SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 



23 



Eligibility to 
office. 



Manner of 
election. 



Term of offi- 
cers. 



Moderator. 



Clerk. 



that the board will decrease in num- 
bers, year by year, until it shall be 
composed of only three members. 

No person shall be eligible to any 
school-district office unless he is a voter 
in the district. No person holding office 
as a member of a school board shall at 
the same time act as district treasurer 
or auditor, nor shall any member of a 
school board be employed as a teacher 
in his district. 

The moderator shall be chosen by 
ballot, by a plurality vote; the clerk, 
school board, and treasurer shall be 
chosen by ballot, by a majority vote. 
The moderator, clerk, and school board 
shall be sworn. 

One third of the members of the 
school board shall be chosen each year 
to hold office for three years, and until 
their successors are chosen and qualified, 
and vacancies in the board shall be filled 
so as to preserve such succession in 
office. All other officers shall be chosen 
annually, and shall hold office for one 
year, and until their successors are 
chosen and qualified. 

The moderator shall have the like 
power and duty as a moderator of a 
town meeting to conduct the business 
and to preserve order, and may admin- 
ister oaths to district officers and in the 
district business. In case of a vacancy 
or absence, a moderator pro tempore 
may be chosen. 

The clerk shall keep a true record of 
all the doings of each meeting; shall de- 
liver to the selectmen of the town an 
attested copy of every vote to raise 
money within ten days after the meet- 
ing; shall make an attested copy of any 
record of the district for any person 
upon request and tender of legal fees 
therefor; shall act as moderator of any 
meeting until a moderator pro tempore 
shall be chosen, if the moderator is 



p. S. 90:14. 
20, laws 1909. 



P. S. 90:15, 
as amended 
bv 69, laws 
1897. 



P. S. 90:16. 



P. S. 90:17. 



P. S. 90:18. 



24 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Treasurer. 



Auditors. 



Filling of va- 
cancies. 



absent or the office has become vacant; 
and shall have the same power to ad- 
minister oaths which the moderator has. 
If the clerk is absent at any meeting, a 
clerk pro tempore shall be chosen. 

The clerk of every school district p. s. 90:i9. 
shall, forthwith, after the election from 
time to time of members of the school 
board, report in writing their names 
and post-office addresses to the town 
clerk of the town ; and if he fails to do 
so, he shall be fined twenty dollars, one 
half for the use of the complainant and 
the other half for the use of the town. 

The treasurer shall, before entering P. S. 90:20. 
upon the duties of his office, give a bond 
with sufficient sureties to the district, 
to the acceptance of the school board, 
for the faithful performance of his offi- 
cial duties. 

The treasurer shall have the custody P. s. 90: 21. 
of all moneys belonging to the district, 
and shall pay out the same only upon 
orders of the school board. He shall 
keep a fair and correct account of all 
sums received into and paid from the 
district treasury. At the close of each 
fiscal year he shall make a report to the 
district, giving a particular account of 
all receipts and payments during the 
year. He shall furnish to the school 
board statements from his books, and 
submit his books and vouchers to them 
and to the district auditors for exami- 
nation, whenever so requested. 

The auditors shall carefully examine P. s. 90:22^ 
the accounts of the treasurer and school 
board at the* close of each fiscal year, 
and at other times whenever necessary, 
and report to the district whether the 
same are correctly cast and well 
vouched. 

The school board shall fill vacancies p. s. 90:23. 
occurring on the board, and in other dis- 
trict offices except that of moderator, 
until the next annual meeting of the 



SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 



25 



District may 
require elec- 
tion or ap- 
pointment of 
superintend- 
ent. 



Evening 
schools. 



district. In case of vacancy of the en- 
tire membership of the board, or the 
remaining members are unable to agree 
upon an appointment, the selectmen, 
upon application of one or more voters 
in the district shall fill the vacancies so 
existing until the next annual meeting 
of the district. 

A school district may require the 
school board to elect or appoint a super- 
intendent of schools, who shall hold 
office for such term, be vested with 
such of the powers and charged with 
such of the duties of the school board, 
and be entitled to such compensation 
as it may provide ; and such district 
may raise and appropriate money to 
pay the compensation. 

tlpon petition of five per cent, of the 
legal voters of any city or town having 
more than five thousand inhabitants, 
according to the latest United States 
census, said city or town shall establish 
and maintain, in addition to the schools 
required by the law to be maintained 
therein, evening schools for the instruc- 
tion of persons over fourteen years of 
age in such branches of learning and 
art as the school board shall deem ex- 
pedient. 

The school board of such cities and 
towns shall have the same superintend- 
ence over such evening schools as they 
have over other schools, and may deter- 
mine the term or terms of time in each 
year and the hours of the evening dur- 
ing which such schools shall be kept, 
and may make such regulations as to 
attendance at such schools as they may 
deem expedient. 

Nothing contained in this act shall ex- 
empt any person from the requirements 
of chapter 93 of the Public Statutes. 



p. S. 90:24, 
as amended 
bv 48, laws 
1895. 



112:1. 
1901. 



laws 



112:2. 
1901. 



laws 



1 12:3, laws 
1901. 



* 



26 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



IV. 



Location. 



Power of 
building com- 
mittee. 



Grievance on 
account of 
location. 



School board 
may locate — ■ 
when. 



Appeal. 



Hearing on 
appeal. 



SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

The district may decide upon the lo- p. s. 9i:i. 
cation of its schoolhouses, by vote or 
by a committee appointed for the pur- 
pose. 

No committee shall have power to p. S. 9i:2. 
bind the district beyond the amount of 
money voted by it, and the district shall 
not be bound by any act, as a ratification 
of the doings of such committee, beyond 
their authority, unless by express vote 
of the district. 

If ten or more voters of a district are p. s. 91 :3. 
aggrieved by the location of a school- 
house by the district or its committee, 
they may apply by petition to the school 
board, who shall hear the parties inter- 
ested and determine the location. 

If the district does not agree upon a p. s. 91 :4. 
location for a schoolhouse or upon a 
committee to locate the same, or if the 
same is not located by such committee 
within thirty days after its appointment, 
the school board, upon petition of ten 
or more voters, shall determine the 
location. 

If ten or more voters of a school dis- p. s. 91 :5. 
trict are aggrieved by the location of a 
schoolhouse by the district or its com- 
mittee, or by the school board, they may 
apply by petition to the county com- 
missioners within ten days after the 
making of the location, who shall hear 
the parties interested and determine 
the location. 

The chairman of the county commis- p. s. 91 :6. 
sioners shall appoint a time and place 
within the district for a hearing upon 
every such petition; and shall give notice 
thereof by causing attested copies of the 
petition and order of notice to be posted 
at two or more public places within the 
district and to be given in hand to, or left 



SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 



27 



Compensation 
of commis- 



Term of loca- 
tion. 



Enlargement 
of school- 
house lot. 



Appraisal for 
land damages. 



P. S. 91: 



P. S. 91:8. 



at the abode of, the clerk of the district 
and of one of the school board, fourteen 
days before the day of hearing. 

In such cases, vacancies in the board 
of commissioners arising from disqual- 
ification of members or otherwise shall 
be filled in the same manner as like 
vacancies are filled in highway cases 
referred to them. 

The hearing shall be closed within 
sixty days. The commissioners shall 
hear all parties interested who desire to 
be heard, and shall make their decision 
in writing and file it with the clerk of 
the district. 

The district shall take no steps to P. S. 9i:9. 
carry into effect a former location while 
any subsequent proceedings authorized 
by law for a change thereof are pending. 

The commissioners shall be paid by p. s. 9i:io. 
the district for their services the same 
fees as in highway cases. Districts are 
authorized to raise money for that 
purpose. 

The location of schoolhouses, however ^- s. 9i :ii. 
made, shall be conclusive for the term 
of five years, unless an appeal therefrom 
shall be prosecuted as provided in this 
chapter. 

The school board or county commis- P. S. 91.12. 
sioners may enlarge any existing school- 
house lot so that it shall contain not ex- 
ceeding one acre, upon such petition to 
them and proceedings thereon as are 
required to authorize them to determine 
the location for a schoolhouse. 

If any school district shall neglect or 
refuse to procure the lot of land selected 
for the location of a schoolhouse or for 
the enlargement of an existing school- 
house lot, as provided in this chapter, 
or if the owner of the land shall refuse 
to sell the same to the district for a 
reasonable price, the selectmen, upon 
petition to them by the school board, or 
by three or more voters of the district, 



p. 8. 91:13. 



28 



Appeal from 
appraisal. 



Possession. 



Selectmen 
may build, re- 
move, etc. — 
when. 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



m 



shall appraise the damages occasioned 
to the land owner by the taking of his 
land. The appraisal shall be made in 
writing, and be filed with the clerk of 
the district. 

Any land owner aggrieved by such p. s. 9i:i4. 
appraisal of his damages may appeal 
therefrom to the supreme court by 
petition within sixty days after the 
appraisal is filed with the clerk of the 
district; and the procedure and remedies 
upon such appeal shall be the same as in 
appeals from the assessment of dama- 
ges by selectmen in highway cases, 
except that service of papers shall be 
made upon the clerk of the district and 
one of the school board, instead of the 
town clerk and one of the selectmen, 
and except as provided in the following 
section. 

Upon payment or tender of the dam- p g 91:15, 
ages awarded, the land shall vest in the 
district, and it may take possession of 
it. Such payment or tender may be 
made in accordance with the award of 
the selectmen before an appeal is taken, 
or w^hile an appeal in pending, and shall 
have like effect. In such case, if the 
damages are increased upon appeal the 
land owner shall have judgment for the 
excess; if decreased, the district shall 
have judgment for the amount of the 
decrease. If the result of the appeal is 
to change the award of damages in favor 
of the land owner, he shall recover 
costs; otherwise, he shall pay costs. 

If a district shall refuse or neglect to p. s. 91: 16. 
build, repair, remove, or fit up a school- 
house, or shall refuse or neglect to build 
a schoolhouse upon or to remove it to 
the lot designated as aforesaid, the 
selectmen, upon petition of three or 
more voters of the district, after hear- 
ing the parties, may assess upon the 
district and collect such sums of money 
as may be necessary, and therewith 



SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 



29 



.^chools shall 
be kept — 
where. 



Use of school- 
houses for 
other pur- 
poses. 



Selection and 
purchase of 
lots in cities. 



Building, etc., 
in cities. 



cause such schoolhouse to be built, re- 
moved, repaired, or fitted up. 

The schools of a district shall be kept 
in its schoolhouses, if it has suitable 
houses that will accommodate the schol- 
ars; if not, the school board shall pro- 
vide suitable accommodations for the 
schools at the expense of the district. 

A school district or a school board 
thereof may grant the use of any 
schoolhouse in the district for a writing 
or singing school, and for religious and 
other meetings, whenever such use will 
not conflict with any regular school 
exercise. The person so using a school- 
house shall be liable for any damages to 
the same and to the property therein. 

The school board of cities shall have 
sole power to select and purchase land 
for schoolhouse lots. When said board 
has secured, by vote of the city councils, 
an adequate appropriation for the pur- 
chase of a specified lot at a specified 
price, then said board may make the 
purchase. 

No schoolhouse shall be erected, 
altered, remodeled, or changed in any 
city school district, unless the plans 
thereof have been previously submitted 
to the school board of that district and 
received its approval, and all new 
schoolhouses shall be constructed under 
the direction of a joint special commit- 
tee, chosen in equal numbers by the city 
councils and the school board. 

Upon the completion of a new school- 
house, the city councils shall, by vote, 
transfer it to the care and control of the 
school board. Whenever a schoolhouse 
shall no longer be needed for public 
school purposes, the school board shall 
re-transfer its care and control to the 
city. 

The provisions of the three preceding 
sections shall not apply to the Union 
School District of Concord, or to the 



p. S. 91:17. 



P. S. 91:18. 



65 : 1, laws 
1897. 



Go :2, laws 
1897. 



65 :3, laws 
1897. 



65 :4, laws 
1897. 



30 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Shade trees, 
etc. 



Doors to open 
outwards. 



Fire-escapes 
on school- 
houses. 



Union School District in the city of 
Keene. 

Whenever any party, at a proper time 
of the year, shall present to the select- 
men of any town or ward, well-grown 
nursery trees of the nut, shade, or orna- 
mental varieties, such selectmen may 
set out said trees in the highways, 
cemeteries, commons, schoolhouse yards, 
and other public places, as indicated by 
the donor of said trees, and protect the 
same at the expense of the town. 

Nothing in this act shall be construed 
to compel any party to have trees set in 
the highway on the side next his land 
without his consent. 

The outer doors and doors of passages 
leading outward, of churches hereafter 
built or rebuilt, school houses containing 
more than two school rooms, and halls 
and other buildings used for public 
gatherings, shall open outward ; and it 
shall be the duty of the selectmen of 
towns to see that these provisions are 
complied with, and to prosecute persons 
who neglect to do so. 

No building three or more stories in 
height, any part of which is used or 
occupied above the second story as a 
hotel, transient lodging house, school- 
house, orphan asylum, theatre, hall for 
public assembly or factory shall be let, 
leased or occupied for such purposes un- 
less provided with a steel or wrought 
iron ladder or stairway fire-escape 
attached to the outer wall and with 
platforms of like material of such size, 
shape and nearness to one or more win- 
dows of each story above the first or 
ground floor as to render access thereto 
easy and safe. If said building be of a 
length greater than one hundred and 
fifty feet it shall be provided with one 
additional such fire-escape for every 
additional one hundred and fifty feet or 
fractional part thereof. Provided that 



44:1, laws 
1897. 



44:2, laws 
1897. 



108, laws 
1909. 



164:1, 
1909. 



laws 



SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 



31 



Barbed wire 
fences near 
schoolhouses. 



Nuisance in 
vicinity of 
schoolhouse. 



164:2, 
1909. 



164:3, 
1909. 



laws 



laws 



any other metal fire-escape may be so 
attached if approved by the building in- 
spector, chief of the fire department or 
board of selectmen. The provisions of 
this section shall not apply to any such 
factory building which shall be ade- 
quately equipped with fire proof stair- 
ways, or other means of exit, duly 
approved in writing by said officers. 
Such fire-escapes shall reach within 
eight feet of the ground and the location 
of the exits thereto shall be designated 
by red lights during such hours of the 
night as the building is occupied for the 
purposes designated in section 1 of this 
act. If any person shall violate any of 
the provisions of this act, he shall be 
fined not exceeding five hundred dollars 
or imprisoned not exceeding six months, 
or both, and it shall be the duty of said 
officers to enforce the provisions of this 
act. 

If any owner or occupant of land ad- P. s. 143:31. 
joining land occupied by a school district 
for school purposes erects, keeps or 
maintains any barbed wire fence to 
separate or divide such lands, he shall 
be fined not exceeding twenty-five 
dollars. 

The selectmen or school board shall 
prosecute at the expense of the town 
or district, as the case may be, any 
violations of the preceding section. 

If any person shall use or occupy a 
building or place near a dwelling-house 
or schoolhouse, or in the compact part 
of a town, for a slaughter-house, a place 
of deposit of green pelts or skins, or for 
trying tallow, currying leather, or 
carrying on any other business that is 
offensive to the public, without the 
written permission of the health officers 
of the town, he shall forfeit ten dollars 
for each month such building or place 
shall be so used or occupied, to be re- 
covered for the use of the town. 



p. S. 143:32. 



P. S. 108:15. 



32 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Saloons and 
schoolhouses. 



No license shall be granted for the 
traffic in liquor in any building which 
shall be on the same street or avenue 
within two hundred feet of a building 
occupied exclusively as a church or 
schoolhouse, the measurements to be 
taken in a straight line from the center 
of the nearest entrance to the building 
used for such church or school, to the 
center of the nearest entrance to the 
place in which the traffic in liquor is de- 
sired to be carried on, or in any location 
where the traffic shall be deemed by 
said board of license commissioners 
detrimental to the public welfare, pro- 
vided, that this restriction shall not 
apply to hotels or drug stores used as 
such on the first day of January, 1903. 



95 :9, laws 
1903. 



V. 



Provision of 
schools. 



Conveyance 
of scholars. 



Hiring of 
teachers. 



Repairs. 



SCHOOL BOARDS, TEACHERS AND 
TRUANT OFFICERS. 

The school board of every district P. S. 92:i. 
shall provide schools at such places 
within the district and at such times in 
each year as will best subserve the in- 
terests of education, and will give to all 
scholars of the district as nearly equal 
advantages as may be practicable. 
They may use a portion of the school 
money, not exceeding twenty-five per 
cent., for the purpose of conveying 
scholars to and from the schools. 

The school board shall select and hire 
suitable and competent teachers hold- 
ing certificates as provided by law, shall 
provide necessary fuel, and shall make 
such occasional repairs of the school- 
houses and furniture as may be neces- 
sary, not exceeding in cost five per 
cent, of the school money. 

[Certificates provided by law and 
those required to be issued by the local 
school board good in the district in 



p. S. 92:2, 
as amended 
br 50, laws of 
1895. 




SCHOOL BOARDS, TEACHERS, TRUANT OFFICERS. 



33 



Dismissal of 
teachers. 



Teacher's 
right to hear- 
ing. 



Power of 
board to pre- 
scribe regula- 
tions. 



Studies to be 
prescribed. 



which they are issued, and those issued 
by the superintendent of pubHc instruc- 
tion, good anywhere in the state. ] 

They may dismiss any teacher found 
by them to be immoral or incompetent 
or who shall not conform to regulations 
prescribed ; provided, however, that no 
teacher shall be so dismissed before the 
expiration of the period for which said 
teacher was engaged without having 
previously been notified of the cause of 
such dismissal, and provided further 
that no teacher shall be so dismissed 
without having previously been granted 
a full and fair hearing. 

The district shall be liable in the 
action of contract to any teacher dis- 
missed in violation of the provisions of 
the preceding section to the extent of 
the full salary for the period for which 
such teacher was engaged. 

The school board may prescribe regu- 
lations for the attendance upon, and for 
the management, studies, classification, 
and discipline of the schools ; and such 
regulations, when recorded by the dis- 
trict clerk, and a copy thereof has been 
given to the teachers and read in the 
schools shall be binding upon scholars 
and teachers. 

They shall prescribe in all mixed 
schools and in all graded schools above 
primary, the studies of physiology and 
hygiene, havifig special reference to the 
effects of alcohoHc stimulants and of 
narcotics upon the human system, and 
shall see that the studies so prescribed 
are thoroughly taught in said schools 
and that well approved text-books upon 
these subjects are furnished to teachers 
and scholars, and shall see that a well 
prescribed reading course dealing with 
the principle of the humane treatment 
of the lower animals shall be included 
in the ordinary instruction in reading or 
otherwise, and that the constitution of 



P. S. 92:3, as 
amended by 
59, laws 1905. 



P. S. 92:4, as 
amended by 
59, laws 1905. 



P. S. 92:6, as- 
amended by 
40, laws 
1895; 31, 
laws 1903; 
49, laws 1909". 



I 



34 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Examination 
of teachers. — 
See also be- 
low. 



Free text- 
books. 



the United States a ad of the state of 
New Hampshire be read aloud by the 
scholars at least once during the last 
year of the course below the high school, 
and may permit or prescribe the study 
of algebra, geometry, surveying, book- 
keeping, philosophy, chemistry, and 
natural history, or any of them, and 
other suitable studies. School boards 
shall, annually, in the month of June or 
July, and at such other times as they 
deem best, hold an examination of can- 
didates for certificates of qualification 
to teach in the public schools. Candi- 
dates shall be examined in the studies 
prescribed by law, or by the school 
board in accordance with law. Such 
candidates as pass an examination sat- 
isfactory to the school board, and pre- 
sent satisfactory evidence of good moral 
character and capacity for government, 
shall receive certificates of qualifica- 
tions signed by the school board, to con- 
tinue in force not more than one year 
from the date thereof. 

They shall purchase, at the expense 
of the city or town in which the district 
is situated, text-books and other supplies 
required for use in the public schools; 
and shall loan the same to the pupils of 
such schools free of charge, subject to 
such regulations for their care and 
custody as the school board may pre- 
scribe. They shall make provision for 
the sale of such books at cost to pupils 
of the school wishing to purchase them 
for there own use. 

[Text-books and supplies cannot le- 
gally be paid for out of school money. 
They are statutory requirements and 
the selectmen must assess enough, in 
addition to money required by law and 
otherwise voted by the district, to cover 
the requirements of the scholars. It is 
the duty of the school board to purchase 
text-books and suppHes, approve the 



p. S. 92:7, ai 
amended by 
laws 1895. 




r 



They shall 
purchase and 
display U. S. 



Certain books 
shall not be 
used. 



Patriotic ex- 
ercises. 



Holidays. 



SCHOOL BOARDS, TEACHERS, TRUANT OFFICERS. 



bills and send the same to the district 
treasurer to be paid out of the money 
assessed by the selectmen for that pur- 
pose. If no money has been assessed, 
the district is liable to a suit at law by 
the party selling the books or supplies.] 
They shall purchase at the expense of 
the city or town in which the district is 
situated, a United States flag of bunt- 
ing not less than five feet in length with 
a flagstaff and appliances for displaying 
the same, for every schoolhouse in the 
district in which a public school is taught 
not otherwise supplied. They shall pre- 
scribe rules and regulations for the 
proper custody, care, and display of the 
flag; and whenever not otherwise dis- 
played, it shall be placed conspicuously 
in the principal room of the schoolhouse. 
Any members of a school board who 
shall refuse or neglect to comply with 
the provisions of this section shall be 
fined ten dollars for the first offense and 
twenty dollars for every subsequent 
offense. 

Not more than ten dollars shall be ex- 
pended for the flag, flagstaff, and 
appliances for any one schoolhouse, and 
the school board shall have the same 
control over its preservation and display 
that it has over the other district 
property. 

[See remarks on text-books and sup- 
plies. The same ruling applies.] 

No book shall be introduced into the 
public schools calculated to favor any 
particular religious sect or political 
party. 

In all the public schools of the state 
one session during the week in which 
Memorial Day falls, or a portion there- 
of, shall be devoted to exercises of a 
patriotic nature. 

Thanksgiving Day and Fast Day, 
whenever appointed. Labor Day, the 
twenty-second day of February, the 
thirtieth day of May, the fourth day of 



35 



p. S. 92:8, as 
amended by 
50, laws 1895, 
and 39, laws 
1903. 



P. S, 92:9, as 
amended by 
50, laws 1895. 



14, laws 1897. 



11. laws 1899, 
as nmendod 
by 7. laws 
1907. and 96, 
laws 1909. 



36 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Registers to 
be furnished. 



Teachers 
shall keep 
registers. 



Reports to be 
filed with se- 
lectmen. 



P. S. 92:10. 



P. S. 92:12, 
as amended 
bv 50, laws 
1895. 



July, the first day of January, and 
Christmas day shall be legal holidays, 
and when either of the last five days 
mentioned occurs on Sunday, the follow- 
ing day shall be observed as a holiday. 

They shall furnish to every teacher one 
of the blank registers provided by the 
superintendent of public instruction, 
and shall visit and examine each school 
in their district at least twice in each 
term, once near the beginning and once 
near the close thereof. 

Every teacher shall make the entries p. s. 92:ii 
in the register required by the superin- 
tendent of public instruction, and at the 
close of the term shall return the regis- 
ter to the school board. Twenty dollars 
of the wages of every teacher shall be 
withheld until he has made such return. 

School boards shall file with the select- 
men on or before the first day of August, 
in each year, their reports to their re- 
spective districts, stating the number of 
weeks the public schools have been kept 
in their districts in summer and winter, 
and what portion by male and what by 
female teachers; the number of teachers 
employed during the year, reckoning 
successive teachers employed in the 
same school as one teacher; the number 
of days attendance of all the pupils of 
the district, inclusive of days spent by 
teachers of the schools of said district in 
attendance upon teachers' institutes as 
provided by law and days spent in at- 
tendance upon the annual meeting of 
the state teachers' association, and the 
average attendance of pupils during the 
remainder of the term shall be con- 
sidered as the attendance of the pupils 
during such days ; the number of scholars 
who have attended each school; the 
number who have attended to each 
study; the number of scholars of their 
districts not less than five years of age 
who have attended the public schools in 



SCHOOL BOARDS, TEACHERS, TRUANT OFFICERS. 



37 



Reports to be 
made to su- 
perintendent 
of public in- 
struction. 



Penalty for 
refusal or 

neglect. 



Penalty for 
neglect of 
duty. 



Boards to ap- 
I)oint truant 
officers. 



District shall 
fix salaries of 
certain offi- 
cers. 



their district not less than two weeks 
during the year; and containing such 
suggestions relative to the schools as 
they may think useful. School boards 
of town districts shall also include in 
their reports a statement of the num- 
ber of children of each sex reported by 
the truant officer or agents of the school 
board; the number of each sex between 
the ages of five and sixteen years who 
have not attended school; the number of 
scholars not less than five years of age 
who have attended the district schools 
in the town not less than two weeks dur- 
ing the year, and the number of per- 
sons in each district between the ages 
of fourteen and twenty-one years who 
cannot read and write. 

School boards shall on or before the 
fifteenth day of July in each year, send 
to the superintendent of public in- 
struction copies of their annual reports 
and answers to the questions proposed 
by him, relating to the schools in their 
district; the school year shall begin with 
the fall term. 

Any member of a school board who 
shall neglect or refuse to comply with 
the provisions of the preceding section 
shall be fined not exceeding fifty dollars. 

If any public officer willfully neglects 
any duty of his office, and no penalty is 
prescribed by statute for such neglect, 
he shall forfeit a sum not exceeding 
thirty dollars. 

School boards shall appoint truant 
officers for their districts. 

Truant officers shall hold office for one 
year, and until their successors shall be 
appointed, but they may be removed by 
the school board at any time for cause. 

At its annual meeting each school 
district shall determine and appoint the 
salaries of its school board and truant 
officer or officers, and the district clerk 



P. S. 92:13, 

as amended 
by 50, laws 
1895, and 5, 
laws 1903. 



P. S. 92:14. 



P. S. 255:14. 



P. S. 92:15, 

as amended 

bv 70, laws 

1899. 

P. S. 92:16. 

22:1, laws 
1909. 



38 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Selectmen 
shall assess. 



Duties of tru- 
ant officers. 



shall certify the same to the selectmen. 

The selectmen shall annually assess 
upon the polls and ratable estate of the 
district a sum equal to the amounts de- 
termined by the district as prescribed in 
section 1 and shall pay over the same to 
the district treasurer. 

The district treasurer shall pay to the 
school board the salaries aforesaid and 
he shall likewise pay the truant officer 
upon the order of the school board, they 
certifying that he has performed the 
duties required of him by law. 

[Truant officers cannot legally be paid 
out of school money. ] 

Truant officers shall, under the direc- 
tion of the school board, enforce the 
laws and regulations relating to truants 
and children between the ages of eight 
and sixteen years not attending school, 
and without any regular and lawful 
occupation; and the laws relating to the 
attendance at school of children between 
the ages of eight and sixteen years. 

Truant officers shall, if required by 
the school board, enforce the laws pro- 
hibiting the employment of children in 
manufacturing, mechanical, or mercan- 
tile establishments, who have not at- 
tended school the prescribed time ; and 
for this purpose they may, when so 
authorized and required by vote of the 
school board, visit the manufacturing, 
mechanical, and mercantile establish- 
ments in their respective cities and 
towns, and ascertain whether any chil- 
dren under the age of sixteen are em- 
ployed therein contrary to the provi- 
sions of law, and they shall report any 
cases of such illegal employment to the 
school board ; and the truant officers, 
when authorized as aforesaid, may de- 
mand the names of all children under 
sixteen years of age employed in such 
manufacturing, mechanical, and mer- 
cantile establishments, and may require 



22:2, laws 
1909. 



22:3, laws 
1909. 



P. S. 92:17, 
as amended 
by 70, laws 
1899. 



P. S. 92:18, 
as amended 
by 70, laws 
1899. 



SCHOOL BOARDS, TEACHERS, TRUANT OFFICERS. 39 

that the certificates and hsts of such 
children provided for by law shall be 
produced for their inspection. Truant 
officers shall inquire into the employ- 
ment, otherwise than in such manufac- 
turing, mechanical, and mercantile es- 
tablishments, of children under the age 
of sixteen years, during the hours when 
the pubHc schools are in session, and 
may require that the certificates of all 
children under sixteen shall be produced 
for their inspection ; and any such offi- 
cer may bring a prosecution against a 
person or corporation employing any 
such child, otherwise than as aforesaid, 
during the hours when the public schools 
are in session, contrary to the provi- 
sions of law. 

A refusal or failure on the part of an 
employer of children under sixteen years 
of age to produce the certificate required 
by law, when requested by a truant offi- 
cer, shall be prima facie evidence of the 
illegal employment of the child whose 
certificate is not produced. 

Truant officers shall have authority 
without a warrant to take and place in 
school any children found employed 
contrary to the laws relating to the em- 
ployment of children or violating the 
laws relating to the compulsory attend- 
ance at school of children between the 
ages of six and sixteen years. 
Enumeration Truant officers or agents appointed by 46, laws 1895, 

of children. school boards of citieS and towns shall ,«s amended 

annually, in the month of September, 
make an enumeration of the children of 
each sex, between the ages of five and 
sixteen years, in their town or city, giv- 
ing such items in regard to each child as 
may be required by the school board or 
the state superintendent of public 
instruction, and shall make a report to 
the school board thereof within fifteen 
days after the completion. 



bv 91, laws 
1905. 



40 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Compensation 
of school 
board. 



School day 
and week. 



Teachers may 
attend insti- 
tutes. 



Evening 
schools. 



Section 14, chapter 43, Public Stat- 
utes, and any other acts inconsistent 
with this act are hereby repealed. 

At its annual meeting each school dis- 
trict shall determine and appoint the 
salaries of its school board and truant 
officer or officers, and the district clerk 
shall certify the same to the selectmen. 

The selectmen shall annually assess 
upon the polls and ratable estate of the 
district a sum equal to amounts deter- 
mined by the district as prescribed in 
section 1 and shall pay over the same to 
the district treasurer. 

The district treasurer shall pay to the 
school board the salaries aforesaid and 
he shall likewise pay the truant officer 
upon the order of the school board, they 
certifying that he has performed the 
duties required of him by law. 

[Salaries of school boards cannot 
legally be paid out of school money.] 

In the absence of express contract, a 
session of three hours in the forenoon 
and three hours in the afternoon shall 
constitute a school day, five such days a 
school week, and four such weeks a 
school month, in the public schools. 

Teachers of public schools may attend 
teachers' institutes held within the state, 
as provided by law, not exceeding one 
day in any term, and the time so spent 
shall be regarded as spent in the service 
of the district. 

Upon petition of five per cent, of the 
legal voters of any city or town having 
more than five thousand inhabitants, 
according to the latest United States 
census, said city or town shall establish 
and maintain, in addition to the schools 
required by law to be maintained therein, 
evening schools for the instruction of 
persons over fourteen years of age in 
such branches of learning and art as the 
school board shall deem expedient. 



46 :2, laws 
1895. 



I 



22, laws 1909. 



P. S. 92:20. 



P. S. 92:21, 
as amended 
by 29, laws 
1903, and 28, 
laws 1909. 



112:1, laws 
1901. 



SCHOOL BOARDS, TEACHERS, TRUANT OFFICERS. 



41 



Boards to 
superintend 
evening 
schools. 



Examination 
and certifica- 
tion of teach- 
ers by super- 
intendent of 
public in- 
struction. 



The school board of such cities and 
towns shall have the same superintend- 
ence over such evening schools as they 
have over other schools, and may de- 
termine the term or terms of time in 
each year and the hours of the evening 
during which such schools shall be kept, 
and may make such regulations as to 
attendance at such schools as they may 
deem expedient. 

Nothing contained in this act shall 
exempt any person from the require- 
ments of chapter 93 of the Public 
Statutes. 

The superintendent of public instruc- 
tion shall cause to be held, at such 
convenient times and places as he may 
from time to time designate, public ex- 
aminations of candidates for the position 
of teacher in the public schools of the 
state. Such examinations shall test the 
professional as well as the scholastic 
abilities of candidates, and shall be con- 
ducted by such persons and in such 
manner as the superintendent of public 
instruction may from time to time 
designate. Due notice of the time, 
place, and other conditions of the ex- 
aminations shall be given in such public 
manner as the superintendent of public 
instruction may determine. 

A certificate of qualifications shall be 
given to all candidates who pass satis- 
factory examinations in such branches as 
are required by law to be taught, and 
who in other respects fulfill the require- 
ments of the superintendent; such cer- 
tificate shall be either probationary, or 
permanent, and shall indicate the grade 
of school for which the person named in 
the certificate is qualified to teach. 

A list of approved candidates shall be 
kept in the office of the department of 
public instruction and copies of the same, 
with such information as may be desired. 



112:2, laws 
1901. 



112:3, laws 
1901. 



49 :1, laws 
1895. 



49:2. laws 
1895. 



49 :3, laws 
1895. 



42 



None shall at- 
tend without 
consent of 
board. 



Vaccination. 



Infectious 
diseases. 



Penalty. 



SCHOOL LAWS. 

shall be sent to school committees upon 
their request. 

The certificates issued under the pro- 
visions of this act shall be accepted by- 
school committees in lieu of the personal 
examination required by section 6 of 
chapter 92 of the Public Statutes. 

A sum not exceeding three hundred 
dollars may be annually expended from 
the income of institute fund for the 
necessary and contingent expenses of 
carrying out the provisions of this act. 

VI. 

SCHOLARS. 

No person shall attend school, or send 
a scholar to the school, in any district of 
which he is not an inhabitant, without 
the consent of the district or of the 
school board. 

No child shall attend any public, paro- 
chial, or private school unless he has 
been vaccinated or has had the small- 
pox, and this section shall be enforced 
by the board of health, except in the 
case of a child who has submitted to the 
process of vaccination not less than three 
times or who holds the certificate of 
the local board of health that he is an 
unfit subject for vaccination. Said board 
of health shall issue such certificate 
upon the advise of a registered physician 
approved by said board of health. 

No parent or guardian, person or per- 
sons having the custody of any child, 
shall permit such child, if infected with 
any communicable disease, or has been 
exposed to such, to attend any public or 
private school. 

Any person who knowingly violates 
any provision of this chapter, or any 
regulation established by authority of 
this chapter, shall be punished by a fine 
of ten dollars for each offense. 



1 

ws ^H 

Iby HI 

1 «QQ ^M' 



49 :4, laws 
1895, as 
amended 
12, laws 1899, 



49 :5, laws 
1895. 



P. S. 93:1. 



P. S. 93:2, as 
amended by 
19, laws 1901, 
and 90, laws 
1909. 



16:7, laws 
1901. 



16:9, laws 
1901. 



SCHOLARS. 



43 



Dismissal for 
misconduct. 



Scholars shall 
attend where 
assigned. 



Penalty. 



District by- 
laws concern- 
ing truants. 



Offense 
against by- 
laws. 



Any scholar may be dismissed from P- S. 93:3. 
school by the school board for gross mis- 
conduct, or for neglect or refusal to 
conform to the reasonable rules of the 
school; and he shall not attend the school 
until restored by the school board. 

No scholar who shall have been as- p. 8.93:4. 
signed to a particular school by the 
school board shall attend any other 
school in the district until assigned 
thereto. 

If any scholar, after notice, shall P. S. 93:5. 
attend or visit a school which he has no 
right to attend, or shall interrupt or 
disturb the same, he shall be fined for 
the first offense five dollars, and for any 
subsequent offense ten dollars, or be 
imprisoned not exceeding thirty days. 

Districts may make by-laws, not re- P. S. 93:6. 
pugnant to law, concerning habitual 
truants and children between the ages 
of six and sixteen years not attending 
school and not having a regular and law- 
ful occupation, and to compel the attend- 
ance of such children at school, and may 
annex penalties for the breach thereof 
not exceeding ten dollars for each 
offense. 

[The department will furnish an ar- 
ticle drawn by the attorney-general for 
insertion in the school warrant upon 
application.] 

Any offender against such by-laws, P. S. 93:7. 
upon conviction, may be sentenced to 
pay a fine and to be committed to the 
Industrial School until it is paid or he is 
otherwise discharged, or he may be 
sentenced to the Industrial school for a 
term not exceeding one year. 

The court or justice imposing a fine P. S. 93:8. 
upon any such offender may remit it 
upon proof that he is unable to pay it, 
and has no parent, guardian, or person 
chargeable with his support, able to pay 
it, and may discharge him from the In- 



44 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Employment 
of children. 



Children un- 
der twelve. 



Children un- 
der sixteen 
may be em- 
ployed — 
when. 



dustrial School if he has been committed 
there for non-payment thereof. 

Any such offender so convicted may 
give bond to the district in the penal 
sum of twenty-five dollars, with suffi- 
cient sureties, approved by the court 
or justice before whom he was con- 
victed, conditioned to attend regularly 
some school kept in the district for one 
term next ensuing, to comply with the 
regulations thereof, and to be obedient 
and respectful to the teacher; and his 
fine may thereupon be remitted by such 
court or justice upon payment of the 
costs. 

No child under the age of twelve years 
shall be employed in any manufacturing 
establishment. No child under the age 
of fourteen years shall be employed in 
any manufacturing establishment, nor 
in any mechanical, mercantile, or other 
employment during the time in which 
the public schools are in session in the 
district in which he resides. 

No child under the age of sixteen 
years shall be employed in any manu- 
facturing establishment, or in any me- 
chanical, mercantile, or other employ- 
ment, during the time in which the 
public schools are in session in the dis- 
trict in which he resides, without first 
presenting a statement of his age from 
his parent or guardian, sworn to before 
the superintendent of schools, or, if 
there is no superintendent of schools, 
before some person authorized by the 
school board of the district in which 
such child is employed. 

And no child under the age of sixteen 
years shall be employed as aforesaid 
during the time in which the public 
schools are in session in the district in 
which he resides without first present- 
ing a certificate from the superin- 
tendent of schools, or, if there is no su- 
perintendent of schools, some person 



p. S. 93:9. 



P. S. 93:10, 
as amended 
by 61, laws 
1901. 



P. S. 93:11 
as amended 
bv 61, laws 
1901. 



SCHOLARS. 45 

authorized by the school board, that 
such child can read at sight and write 
legibly simple sentences in the English 
language. And any superintendent of 
schools or person authorized by the 
school board who certifies falsely as to 
matters prescribed by this section shall 
be fined not less than twenty nor more 
than fifty dollars for each offense. 
Employment No minor shall be employed in any P. S. 93: 12, 

of minors. manufacturing establishment, or in any ^^, amended 

mechanical, mercantile, or other em- 1901.' ^^^ 
ployment, who cannot read at sight and 
write legibly simple sentences in the 
English language, while a free public 
evening school is maintained in the dis- 
trict in which he resides, unless he is a 
regular attendant at such evening school 
or at a day school ; provided, that upon 
presentation by such minor of a certifi- 
cate signed by a regular practicing phy- 
sician, and satisfactory to the superin- 
tendent of schools, or, where there is no 
superintendent of schools, the school 
board, showing that the physical condi- 
tion of such minor would render such 
attendance in addition to daily labor 
prejudicial to his health, said superin- 
tendent of schools or school board shall 
issue a permit authorizing the employ- 
ment of such minor for such period as 
said superintendent of schools or school 
board may determine. Said superin- 
tendent of schools or school board, or 
teachers acting under authority thereof, 
may excuse any absence from such 
evening school arising from justifiable 
cause. Any parent, guardian, or custo- 
dian who permits to be employed any 
minor under his control in violation of 
the provisions of this section shall for- 
feit not more than twenty dollars for 
the use of the evening schools of such 
town or city. 
Penalty for ii- If any owner, agent. Superintendent, P. S. 93:13, 
legal employ- or overseer of a manufacturing, me- "^ Hmonded 
™e°t- chanical, or mercantile establishment %^l "^^ 



I 



46 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Persons hav- 
ing custody of 
children must 
cause them to 
attend school. 



Superintend- 
ent of public 
instruction to 
have same 
powers as tru- 
ant officers. 



or any other person shall employ any 
child in violation of the provisions of 
either of the three preceding sections, 
he shall be fined not exceeding fifty 
dollars for each offense, for the use of 
the district. 

Every person having the custody and 
control of a child between the ages of 
eight and fourteen years, or of a child 
under the age of sixteen years, who 
cannot read at sight and write legible, 
simple sentences in the English lan- 
guage, residing in a school district in 
which a public school is annually taught, 
shall cause such child to attend the pub- 
lic school all the time such school is in 
session, unless the child shall be excused 
by the school board of the district be- 
cause his physical or mental condition 
is such as to prevent his attendance at 
school for the period required, or be- 
cause he was instructed in the English 
language in a private school approved 
by the school board for a number of 
weeks equal to that in which the public 
school was in session in the common 
English branches, or, having acquired 
those branches, in other, more advanced 
studies. Any person who does not com- 
ply with the requirements of this sec- 
tion shall be fined ten dollars for the 
first offense and twenty dollars for 
every subsequent offense, for the use of 
the district. 

The state superintendent of public 
instruction shall have authority to en- 
force the laws relating to attendance at 
school and the employment of minors, 
and, for this purpose, he and any deputy 
appointed by him shall be vested with 
the powers given by law to truant offi- 
cers when authorized by school boards 
to enforce the laws relating to attend- 
ance at school and the employment of 
children. And the expenses necessarily 
incurred by the state superintendent in 



p. S. 93:14, 
as amended 
bv 61, laws 
1901, and 13, 
laws 1903. 



P. S. 93:15, 
as amended 
by 61, laws 
1901. 



SCHOLARS. 



47 



Copies of law 
to be sent to 
offenders. 



Penalty for 

interrupting 

school. 



School board 
must prose- 
cute 
offenders. 



Limitation of 
prosecution. 

Private 
schools must 
be approved. 



such enforcement shall be paid as au- 
dited and allowed by the governor and 
council. 

The school board of every district p. S. 93:i6. 
shall cause a copy of the two preceding 
sections to be sent to every person who 
they have reason to believe does not 
comply with the requirements of section 
14 of this chapter. 

Any person, not a scholar, who shall P- S. 93: 17. 
wilfully interrupt or disturb any school 
shall be punished by a fine not exceed- 
ing fifty dollars, or by imprisonment 
not exceeding thirty days. 

It shall be the duty of the school p. S. 93:i8. 
board to prosecute offenders for viola- 
tions of the provisions of this chapter. 
If they neglect to perform this duty 
they shall forfeit twenty dollars for 
each neglect, for the use of the district, 
to be recovered in the name of the dis- 
trict by the selectmen of the town. All 
necessary expenses incurred in such 
proceedings shall be paid by the district. 

No prosecution under this chapter P. S. 93: 19. 
shall be sustained unless begun within 
one year after the offense is committed. 

No certificate as provided in the fore- 
going sections shall be issued for attend- 
ance at any private school, unless such 
school shall have previously been ap- 
proved by the school board of the dis- 
trict in which it is situated as furnishing 
instruction in the English language in 
all the studies required by law equal to 
that given in the public schools of said 
district, and unless the record of attend- 
ance shall be kept in the form required 
of the public schools, and be open to 
the inspection of the school board of 
the district at all times. 



p. S. 93:20. 
enacted by 62. 
laws 1895. 



I 



48 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



P. S. 94:2, as 
amended by 
35, laws 
1895, and 33, 
laws 1903. 



VII. 

SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUC- 
TION. 

Appointment. The governor, with advice of council, P- S. 94:1. 
shall appoint a superintendent of pub- 
lic instruction, who shall hold office for 
the term of two years, and shall have 
general supervision and control of the 
educational interests of the state. 

Duties. The superintendent of public instruc- 

tion shall prescribe the form of register 
to be kept in the schools, and the form 
of blanks and inquiries for the returns 
to be made by the school boards, and 
shall seasonably send the same to the 
clerks of the several towns and cities 
for the use of the school boards therein; 
he shall receive, preserve, or distribute 
all state documents in regard to public 
schools or education, and shall receive 
and arrange in his office reports and re- 
turns of school boards; he shall investi- 
gate the condition and efficiency of the 
system of popular education in the 
state, especially in relation to the 
amount and character of the instruction 
given to the study of physiology and 
hygiene, having special reference to the 
effects of alcoholic stimulants and of 
narcotics upon the human system, and 
shall recommend to school boards what 
he considers the best text-books upon 
those subjects and suggest to them the 
best mode of teaching them, and shall 
pursue such a course for the purpose of 
awakening and guiding public sentiment 
in relation thereto as may seem to him 
best, and he shall biennially make a 
report, containing a concise abstract of 
the returns of the school boards, a de- 
tailed report of his own doings, a state- 
ment of the condition and progress of 
popular education in the state, and such 
suggestions and recommendations in 



SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 



49 



Institutes. 



Institute 
fund. 



Expenses of 
institute. 



reg:ard to improving the same as his 
information and judgment may dictate. 
He shall have authority at the close of 
each biennial session of the legislature 
to compile and issue at the expense of 
the state an edition of the school laws 
with the session amendments, not ex- 
ceeding two thousand copies. 

He shall visit and lecture upon educa- p. S. 94:3. 
tional subjects in as many towns and 
cities of the state during the term of 
his office as the time occupied by his 
other official duties will permit. 

He shall organize, superintend, and P. S. 94:4. 
hold at least one teachers' institute 
each year in each county of the state, 
and appoint the time and place, and 
make suitable arrangements therefor. 

In case he is unable for any cause to P- S. 94:5. 
conduct in person any institute, or to 
make the necessary arrangements 
therefor, he shall appoint the principal 
of the state normal school, or some 
other suitable person, for that purpose. 

The state treasurer is authorized and P- S. 94:6. 
instructed to invest, as a permanent 
institute fund, the proceeds of the sale 
of the state lands effected under the 
authority of a joint resolution approved 
June 28, 1867, and the annual income 
thereof is set apart for the support of 
teachers' institutes. 

The superintendent of public instruc- P- S. 94:7. 
tion may draw upon the state treasurer 
each year for such part of said income 
as may be required to defray the neces- 
sary expenses of the institutes, and for 
procuring suitable instruction and lec- 
tures for the same. 

His account for the expenses of the p. S. 94:8. 
institutes shall be audited each year by 
the governor and council, and he shall 
incorporate in his annual report a report 
of the institutes and of the expenses of 
the same. 



50 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Copy of re- 
ports to be 
sent to school 
boards. 
Traveling ex- 
penses. 



He shall forward to the chairman of P- S. 94:9. 
every school board in the state a copy 
of each of his annual reports. 

The traveling expenses necessarily p. s. 94:ii, 
incurred by the superintendent of pub- as enacted ' 
lie instruction in the performance of ^y ^8, laws 
the regular duties of his office shall be 
paid as audited and allowed by the gov- 
ernor and council, not to exceed one 
hundred and fifty dollars ($150) in any 
one year. 

VIII. 



1905. 



Establish- 
ment. 



Trustees. 



Officers of 
board of 

trustees. 



NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

Plymouth. 

The New Hampshire State Normal p. S. 95:1. 
School, as heretofore established and 
located, is continued. The instruction 
in the school shall be confined to such 
branches as will specially prepare the 
pupils to teach in the public schools, 
and to such other branches as are usu- 
ally taught in normal schools. The 
school shall be in session at least twenty 
weeks in each year. 

The management of the school shall 
be vested in a board of trustees com- 
posed of the governor, the superintend- 
ent of public instruction, and five other 
persons who shall be appointed by the 
governor, with the advice of the coun- 
cil, and shall hold oflfice for five years, 
one of whom shall be appointed each 
year. 

The board shall choose from its mem- P. S. 95:3. 
bers a president and secretary, and such 
committees and other officers as may be 
necessary to transact its business, and 
may choose a treasurer who is not a 
member of the board. They shall meet 
at least once each year and shall receive 
no compensation for services, but shall 
be paid their reasonable expenses while 



p. S. 95:2, 
as amended 
bv 3. laws 
1903. 



I 



NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



51 



Teachers. 



Courses of 
study. 

Examina- 
tions, admis- 
sion and 
graduation. 



Tuition free 
upon certain 
conditions. 



Support. 



Teachers at 
institutes. 



Duties of 
superintend- 
ent of public 
instruction in 
connection 
with school. 



engaged in the performance of their 
duties. 

They shall select and employ a princi- 
pal teacher for the school, who shall be 
allowed, with their advice and consent, 
to select the assistants and provide for 
the discipline of the school. 

The trustees, with the principal, shall 
arrange courses of study for the school. 

The trustees and principal shall pre- 
scribe and control the examinations for 
the admission and graduation of pupils, 
and they shall grant certificates of 
graduation to such as complete either 
course and pass the required examina- 
tions. 

Tuition and graduation shall be free 
to all those completing either course of 
study who will agree to teach in the 
public schools of this state for a period 
equal to the length of such course. The 
trustees shall make such provisions as 
may be necessary to effect the purposes 
of this section. 

The sum of twenty-five thousand dol- 
lars is annually appropriated for the 
maintenance of the school, to be ex- 
pended as the trustees shall direct. 

The principal and teachers of the 
State Normal School shall assist and 
give instruction at teachers' institutes, 
so far as they can without interfering 
with their duties in the normal school, 
but they shall receive no additional com- 
pensation, except for travel and other 
actual and necessary expenses while so 
employed. 

The superintendent of public instruc- 
tion, in his annual report, shall state 
the condition of the school, the terms of 
admission and graduation, the times of 
the commencement and close of the ses- 
sions, and shall cause the same to be 
printed on the cover of the school reg- 
ister. 



P. S. 95:4. 



P. S. 95:5. 



P. S. 95:6. 



P. S. 95: 



P. S. 95:8, 
as amended 
by 59, laws 
1903. 

P. S. 95:9. 



P. S. 95:10. 



52 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Keene, 



Establish- 
ment Keene 
Normal 
School. 



Contract with 
city of 
Keene. 



Appropriation 
for establish- 
ment. 



On or before May 1, 1909, the gov- 
ernor and council and the board of trus- 
tees of the State Normal School shall 
organize as a joint board for the loca- 
tion and establishment of a normal 
school in Keene. 

Said board is hereby authorized to re- 
ceive aid in money, property or other 
valuable effects, for the benefit of said 
school from any and all individuals or 
municipal or other corporations. Said 
board is authorized to purchase or ac- 
quire such lands as it may deem best, 
consistent with the amount or means 
appropriated or otherwise obtained for 
such purposes. And in the purchase or 
acquisition of lands and the buildings 
thereon, if any, said board is authorized 
and directed to procure a good and suit- 
able deed of conveyance in the name of 
the state and a proper instrument of 
sale of all such library, school furniture 
and apparatus therein as may be ac- 
quired. 

No money shall be expended under 
the provisions of this act until the 
union school district in said city shall 
have agreed in writing through its duly 
authorized officials with the duly au- 
thorized officials acting for the state, 
to co-operate with said school in the 
maintenance of model and practice 
schools, for a term of years, in such 
manner as shall meet with the approval 
of said trustees, and said district is 
hereby authorized to enter into such 
contract. 

A sum not to exceed ten thousand 
dollars ($10,000) is hereby appropriated 
for the purposes of sections 1 and 2 of 
this act and the governor is hereby au- 
thorized to draw his warrant for all or 
any part of said amount upon any mon- 
eys in the treasury not otherwise appro- 



157:1, laws 
1909. 



157:2, laws 
1909. 



157:3, 
1909. 



laws 



157:4, laws 
1909. 



NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



53 



Government. 



Contracts 
with towns 
other than 
Plymouth or 
Keene. 



Maintenance. 



priated, said sum to be used in connec- 
tion with any other money or moneys 
that may be secured from any other 
source for the aforementioned purposes. 

Said school when estabhshed shall be 
under the direction of the board of trus- 
tees of the state normal school now es- 
tablished, and said board shall be styled 
The Board of Trustees of the New 
Hampshire Normal Schools. All provi- 
sions of chapter 95 of the Public Stat- 
utes and the amendments thereto, not 
inconsistent herewith, relating to the 
organization, government and mainte- 
nance of the normal school mentioned 
therein and all the duties imposed or 
prescribed thereby for the trustees, 
teachers or pupils and the superintend- 
ent of public instruction shall apply to 
and be observed in the organization, 
government and maintenance of the 
normal school established under this act. 

The Board of Trustees of the New 
Hampshire Normal Schools is hereby 
authorized to contract with any city or 
town in the vicinity of either of the 
normal schools for the maintenance of 
practice schools therein in connection 
with said normal schools and may pro- 
vide for the payment of such portion of 
the compensation of the supervising 
teachers employed in said practice 
schools as they may deem just and 
equitable. 

Any city or town is hereby authorized 
to enter into such contract as is provided 
by either section 3 or section 6 of this 
act ; also any city or town is authorized 
to make such ^ifts as it may determine 
for the establishment or maintenance 
of said school. 

The sum of twelve thousand dollars 
($12,000) is hereby appropriated for the 
support and maintenance of said school 
for each school year beginning with the 
school year opening in September 1909 
and 1910. 



157:5. 
1909. 



laws 



157 : 6, laws 
1909. 



157:7 
1909. 



laws 



157:8. laws 
1909. 



54 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



IX. 



Districts may 
establish high 
schools. 



Discontinu- 
ance of such 
schools. 



Town must 
maintain. 



Adjoining dis- 
tricts may 
make con- 
tracts for 
establishing 
joint high 
school. 



Districts may 
contract for 
tuition. 



HIGH SCHOOLS. 

Any school district may, by vote or P. S. 89:9. 
by-law, establish and maintain a high 
school in which the higher English 
branches of education and the Latin, 
Greek, and modern languages may be 
taught. 

No high school established by a vote ^o, laws 1905. 
of a town shall be discontinued, or the 
location thereof be changed, except by 
the superior court, on petition of the 
school board of the town district in 
which it is located, after such notice as 
the court may order, if it shall appear 
that the educational interests of the 
town district require such discontinu- 
ance or change. 

It shall be the duty of any town in 72, laws 1905. 
which there is a high school, established 
by vote of the town, to raise and appro- 
priate each year sufficient money to 
properly maintain such school. 

Two or more adjoining districts in the P. S. 89 :io. 
same or different towns may make con- 
tracts with each other for establishing 
and maintaining jointly a high or 
other public school for the benefit of 
their scholars, and may raise and ap- 
propriate money to carry the contracts 
into effect; and their school boards, act- 
ing jointly or otherwise, shall have such 
authority and perform such duties in 
relation to schools so maintained as may 
be provided for in the contracts. 

Any school district may contract with p. S. 89 :io. 
an academy, seminary, or other literary 
institution located within its limits or in 
its immediate vicinity, for furnishing 
instruction to its scholars; and the 
school money may be used to carry the 
contract into effect. 

[Contracts made with institutions sit- 
uated outside the state are not -deemed 



HIGH SCHOOLS. 



55 



High schools 
in dissolved 
special dis- 
tricts. 



Towns must 
maintain such 
schools. 



Discontinu- 
ance of such 
schools. 



Penalty. 



Towns not 
maintaining 
high schools 
must pay tui- 
tion. 



valid except in the instances specified 
below.] 

Whenever any school district organ- 
ized under a special act of the legisla- 
ture shall vote to abolish such district 
and to unite with the town district, if 
said town district shall vote to receive 
said special district, if said special dis- 
trict has for the five years next preced- 
ing such vote maintained a high school, 
it shall be incumbent on the town dis- 
trict with which it unites to thereafter 
keep and maintain within the limits of 
said special district a high school for at 
least thirty-four weeks in each year, 
and of equal grade to that which had 
been previously maintained therein by 
such special district, said high school to 
be open to all scholars in the town dis- 
trict, of suitable age and qualifications. 

It shall be the duty of said town dis- 
trict to raise and appropriate each year 
thereafter sufficient money in addition 
to the school money which the town in 
which it is situated may raise, to prop- 
erly maintain such high school, or 
schools, as may be established under 
the preceding section. 

Any high school hereby established 
may be discontinued, or the location 
thereof changed, by the supreme court, 
on petition of the school board of the 
town district in which it is located, after 
such notice as the court may order, if it 
shall appear that the educational inter- 
ests of the town district require such 
discontinuance or change. 

Any town district failing to comply 
with the provisions of this act, or any 
of them, shall be fined for such neglect. 

Any town not maintaining a high 
school or school of corresponding grade 
shall pay for the tuition of any child 
who with parents or guardian resides in 
said town and who attends a high school 
or academy in the same or another town 



64:1, laws 
1891. 



64:2, laws 
1891. 



64:3, laws 
1891. 



64:4, laws 
1891. 



96:1, laws 
1901, as 
junonded by 
118. laws 
1903. 



56 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Liability for 
tuition. 



Rebate from 
state in cer- 
tain cases. 



or city in this state, and the parent or 
guardian of such child shall notify the 
school board of the district in which he 
resides of the high school or academy 
which he has determined to attend; 
provided, however^ that no town shall 
be liable for tuition of a child in any 
school, in excess of the average cost 
per child of instruction for the regularly 
employed teachers of that school and 
the cost of text-books, supplies, and 
apparatus during the school year pre- 
ceding, nor in any case, shall the town 
be liable for tuition for any child in ex- 
cess of forty dollars per year. 

If any town in which a high school or 
school of corresponding grade is not 
maintained neglects or refuses to pay 
for tuition as provided in the preceding 
section, such town shall be liable there- 
for to the parent or guardian of the child 
furnished with such tuition, if the parent 
or guardian has paid the same, or to the 
town or city furnishing the same in an 
action of contract. 

Such sum as may be needed shall be 
appropriated annually from the state 
treasury for the payment of tuition in 
high schools and academies, to be paid 
by the state treasurer in the month of 
December of each year to the treasurers 
of such towns as are entitled, and in 
such manner as is hereinafter provided, 
upon a sworn certificate of the superin- 
tendent of public instruction of the sums 
due. 

Towns whose rate of taxation for 
school purposes in any year is $3.50 or 
more on $1,000, and whose average rate 
of taxation for all purposes for five years 
next preceding is $16.50 or more on 
$1,000, shall receive a share of said 
appropriation as follows : 

If the tax rate is from $16.50 to 
$17.49, one tenth of the tuition paid. 



96:2, laws 
1901. 



96:3, laws 
1901, as 
amended by 
89. laws 
1905. 



HIGH SCHOOLS. 



Oi 



Definition of 
high school. 



Approval by 
superintend- 
ent of public 
instruction. 



Literary fund 
for scholars 
attending 
high schools 
and acade- 
mies. 



If the tax rate is from $17.50 to 
$18.49, two tenths of the tuition paid. 

If the tax rate is from $18.50 to 
$19.49, three tenths of the tuition paid. 

If the tax rate is from $19.50 to 
$20.49, four tenths of the tuition paid. 

If the tax rate is from $20.50 to 
$21.49, five tenths of the tuition paid. 

If the tax rate is from $21.50 to 
$22.49, six tenths of the tuition paid. 

If the tax rate is from $22.50 to 
$23.49, seven tenths of the tuition paid. 

If the tax rate is from $23.50 to 
$24.49, eight tenths of the tuition paid. 

If the tax rate is from $24.50 to 
$25.49, nine tenths of the tuition paid. 

Over $25.49, the whole of such tuition. 

If more than $8,000 should be needed 
in any year for the purposes of this act, 
the said $8,000 shall be distributed pro 
rata to the towns entitled to receive the 
same, in accordance with the foregoing 
classification. 

By the term "high school'' or ''acad- 
emy,'' as used in this act, is understood 
a school having at least one course of not 
less than four years, properly equipped 
and teaching such subjects as are re- 
quired for admission to college, techni- 
cal school, and normal school, including 
reasonable instruction in the constitu- 
tion of the United States and in the con- 
stitution of New Hampshire, such high 
school or academy to be approved by the 
state superintendent of public instruc- 
tion as complying with the requirements 
of this section. And said superintendent 
is authorized to approve a school main- 
taining any part of such course for the 
part so maintained. 

Towns paying tuition of scholars in 
high schools or academies shall receive 
a proportionate share of the literary 
fund for the attendance of such pupils. 
All academies and private schools shall 
be furnished with copies of the school 



96:4, laws 
1901, as 
amended by 
31 and 118, 
laws 1903, 
and 19, laws 
1905. 



OO:.'), laws V.m. 



I 



58 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Districts may 
make con- 
tracts for tui- 
tion. Status 
of schools 
with which 
contracts are 
made. 



Districts lo- 
cated on state 
line may con- 
tract with 
institutions 
in other 
states. 



Districts lo- 
cated on state 
line must pay 
tuition in 
approved in- 
stitutions in 
other states. 



register, and shall make an annual sta- 
tistical report to the state superintend- 
ent. 

Any school district may make con- 
tracts with any academies or high 
schools or other literary institutions 
located in the state for furnishing in- 
struction to its scholars, and such school 
district may raise and appropriate money 
to carry iato effect any contracts in re- 
lation thereto. Every such academy or 
high school or literary institution shall 
then be deemed a high school maintained 
by such district, if approved by the 
superintendent of public instruction in 
accordance with section 4 of this act. 

The school districts in the towns of 
Walpole, Mason, Rollinsford and Con- 
way may make contracts with Bellows 
Falls, Vt., Townsend, Mass., Berwick 
Academy, Me. , and Fryeburg Academy, 
Me., respectively, for furnishing in- 
struction to their pupils of high school 
grade, and may raise and appropriate 
money to carry such contracts into effect. 

Any school district in towns bordering 
on the state line, not having a high 
school or school of corresponding grade, 
may make contracts with high schools 
or academies in towns and cities located 
out of the state, whenever by reason of 
distance and transportation facilities 
such schools outside the state are more 
accessible to the pupils, and may raise 
and appropriate money to carry such 
contracts into effect, provided^ however y 
that every such academy or high school 
shall be approved by the superintendent 
of public instruction, in accordance with 
section 4, chapter 96, session Laws of 
1901, and acts in amendment thereof and 
addition thereto. 

Any district in a town bordering on 
the state line not maintaining a high 
school or school of corresponding grade 
shall pay for the tuition of any child, 
who, with parents or guardian resides in 
said district and who attends a high 



96:6, laws 1901, 
as amended by 
118, laws 1903, 
and 90, laws 
1905. 



122, laws 
1907. 



96:7, laws 
1901, as 
enacted by 
100, laws 
1909. 



96:8, laws 
1901, as 
enacted by 
100, laws 
1909. 



SUPERVISION. 



59 



Such districts 
shall be en- 
titled to 
rebate. 



school or academy located out of the 
state, whenever by reason of distance 
and transportation facilities such schools 
outside the state are more accessible to 
the pupils, provided, however, that every 
such academy or high school shall be 
approved by the superintendent of pub- 
lic instruction, in accordance with sec- 
tion 4, chapter 96, session Laws of 1901, 
and acts in amendment thereof and 
addition thereto, and the parents or 
guardian of such child shall notify the 
school board of the district in which he 
resides of the high school or academy 
which he desires to attend, and the 
approval of the school board shall be 
necessary in all cases arising under this 
section. 

Towns paying for tuition of scholars 
in high schools or academies out of the 
state shall be entitled to share in the 
annual appropriation of the state for 
such tuition, and in the literary fund, 
so-called, in the same manner as towns 
paying for the tuition of children attend- 
ing a high school or academy in the state. 

The principal of each college, acad- 
emy, seminary, or other institution of 
learning incorporated by the laws of 
this state, shall annually and before the 
first day of November of each year, 
forward to the New Hampshire Gene- 
alogical Society, for its library, one copy 
of each printed catalogue of its officers 
and students and courses of studies pub- 
lished during the year next preceding 
said date. 



96:9, laws 
1901, as 
enacted by 
100, laws 
1909. 



40, laws 
1907. 



X. 



District may 
require board 
to appoint 
superintend- 
ent. 



SUPERVISION. 

A school district may require the 
school board to elect or appoint a super- 
intendent of schools, who shall hold 
office for such term, be vested with 
such of the powers and charged with 



V. S. 90:24, 
as amended 
1)y 48, laws 
1S05. 



I 



60 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



Two or more 
towns or 
special dis- 
tricts may 
jointly employ 
superintend- 
ent. 



Two or more 
towns or 
special dis- 
tricts may 
form super- 
visory dis- 
trict. 



Joint super- 
visory com- 
mittee. 



such of the duties of the school board, 
and be entitled to such compensation as 
it may provide; and such district may- 
raise and appropriate money to pay the 
compensation. 

Two or more towns or special districts 
may, by vote of each, form a district 
for the purpose of employing a superin- 
tendent of the public schools therein, 
who shall perform in each town the du- 
ties prescribed by law and the regula- 
tions of the school boards. 

Such superintendent shall be appoint- 
ed by a joint committee composed of 
the school board of each of the towns of 
said district, who shall determine the 
relative amount of service to be per- 
formed by him in each town, and shall 
fix his salary and apportion the amount 
thereof to be paid by the several towns, 
and certify such amount to the treas- 
urer of each town. Said joint commit- 
tee shall, for said purposes, be held to 
be the agents of each town composing 
such district. 

Two or more towns or special dis- 
tricts, or their school boards when duly 
authorized by their respective districts, 
may, by vote of each, form a supervi- 
sory district for the purpose of employ- 
ing a superintendent of the public 
schools therein, who shall perform in 
each town the duties prescribed by law 
and by the regulations of the school 
boards, giving thereto his entire time. 

The school boards of the several dis- 
tricts forming the supervisory district 
shall constitute a joint committee which 
for all purposes of this act shall be the 
agent of each district therein repre- 
sented. Said committee shall meet be- 
tween April 1 and August 1 of each 
year, as may be agreed upon by the 
chairmen of the several boards and or- 
ganize by the choice of a chairman, a 
secretary, and a treasurer. It shall 



47:1, laws 
1895. 



47:2, laws 
1895. 



77:1, laws 
1899. 



. laws 



1899. 



SUPERVISION. 



61 



State will pay 
one-half 
salary of 
superintend- 
ent. 



Size of dis- 
tricts. 



Withdrawal 
from super- 
visory dis- 



trict. 



elect a superintendent for such super- 
visory district, determine the character 
and value of his services, and apportion 
the same among the several districts, 
certifying such apportionment to their 
respective treasurers. 

Any town or special district which 
shall unite with one or more districts to 
form a supervisory district, which shall 
employ as superintendent, at an annual 
salary, a person holding a permanent 
state teacher^s certificate, and shall 
certify through its chairman and secre- 
tary such facts to the state treasurer, 
shall be entitled to one-half its appor- 
tioned share of said salary, said sum to 
be paid by him in December of each 
year to the town treasurer of each town 
in said supervisory district, upon sworn 
statement of the state superintendent 
of public instruction certifying as to 
what amount each town is entitled. 
This section shall not apply to cities. 

[The town's portion of the superin- 
tendent's salary may be paid out of the 
school money.] 

Supervisory districts of less than 
three towns formed under this act shall 
employ not fewer than twenty nor more 
than sixty teachers. 

Any town or special district which has 
united, or may hereafter unite, with any 
other town or towns, district or districts, 
to form a supervisory district, as pro- 
vided by chapter 77 of the Laws of 1899, 
may, at any annual school district meet- 
ing, by vote, rescind such action, and 
thereupon shall, at the end of the school 
year or at the expiration of the period 
for which such supervisory district may 
then already have contracted for the 
services of a superintendent, cease to be 
a part of such supervisory district. 



77:3, laws 
1899, as 
amended by 
18, laws 1901. 



77:4, laws 
1899, as 
amended by 
115, laws 
1905. 
81, laws 
1901. 



62 



SCHOOL LAWS. 



XL 



Town clerks 
must notify 
superintend- 
ent of public 
instruction 
names of local 
school board. 



Legalizing 
actions of 
town and dis- 
trict meet- 
ings, 1909. 



UNCLASSIFIED. 

Every town clerk, within thirty days p. s. 43:3. 
after the annual meeting, shall report 
to state officers the names and post- 
office addresses of town officers as fol- 
lows : . . .to the state superintend- 
ent of public instruction, those of the 
local school board. . . . Any town 
clerk who neglects to make reports as 
required by this section shall be subject 
to pay a fine of twenty dollars for each 
failure, one half for the use of the de- 
partment to which he fails to report, and 
the other half for the use of the town. 

All acts and proceedings of the voters 97^ Laws 
of towns in the year 1909 appropriating 1909. 
money for school purposes, whether 
same was voted in annual town or an- 
nual school district meetings are hereby 
legalized and made valid. 



INDEX. 



Academies, approved by superintendent of public instruction, 

when 57 

districts may contract with, when 12, 54 

Academy, definition of 57 

tuition rebate from state 8, 9, 56 

to be paid by town, when 55 

see high schools. 

Attendance 42-47 

average, state aid based upon 7 

by-law concerning 43 

penalty for offense against by-law 43 

see employment of children. 
Auditors of districts 24 

By-law, district 43 

Certificated teachers entitle district to state aid 7 

Certification of children by superintendent 44 

teachers, by school boards 34 

by superintendent of public instruc- 
tion 41 

Certificates, of employment 44 

teachers' 34, 41, 42 

Check-list to be used at school meeting, when 21 

Child labor, »ee employment of children. » 

Children, certificates furnished to, when 44 

enumeration of, by truant ofiicer, when 39 

Clerk of district, duty of 23, 24 

how chosen 23 

vacancy, how filled 24 

Contagious diseases 42 

Conveyance of scholars 32 



64 INDEX. 



it 



I 



Day, school, in absence of contract 40 

District clerk, see clerk. 

definition of 10 

meetings, see meetings. 
officers, see ofl&cers. 

organization of 10 

Districts, admission of scholars from other districts 14 

annexation of territory 17, 18 I 

contracting with high schools outside of state, to re- 
ceive rebate, when 59 

dissolution of special ^^'^^^Bl 

joint schools of two or more l^^ll 

maintenance of high schools in dissolved special 16, 17 

may contract with secondary schools 12, 54 

outside the state, 

when 12 

establish evening schools 25 

high schools 11, 54 

joint schools 12 

hire money, how 10 

for what 10 

maintain high school 11 

make by-laws 43 

raise money, for what 5, 10, 17 

require appointment of superintendent 25, 59 

records of dissolved school 16 

situate in two or more towns 14 

some things that may not be done by 19 

summary of chief powers 19 

taxes of 10 

to be corporations 10 

determine salaries of school boards 37, 40 

truant officers 37, 40 

receive aid for certificated teachers 7 

normal graduates 7 



INDEX. 65 

Districts to receive aid for supervision, when 51 

from state, when 7, 9, 13, 51 

Dog tax 5 

Doors to open outwards 30 

Employment of children 44 

illegal 38 

penalty for 45 

under sixteen, when 44 

under twelve 44 

of minors 45 

Enumeration of children 39 

Equalization fund 7 

Evening schools 27 

how established 40 

superintended 41 

Examination of teachers by school board 34 

superintendent of public instruction 41 

Fire-escapes . 30 

Flags and flagstaffs 35 

how paid for 35 

Guardians to send children to school 46 

penalty for neglect 46. 

High schools, approved by superintendent of public instruction, 

when 57 

definition of 57 

discontinued, how 54 

when 55 

districts may contract with, when 12, 54 

established by joint districts 54 

how 54 

in dissolved special districts 55 

5 



66 INDEX. 



1 

56 W\ 



High schools, liability for tuition at 

must be maintained, how 54 

outside of state may be contracted with, when. ... 58 

must be approved 58 

penalty for failure to maintain 55 

town to maintain 55 

tuition rebate from state 8, 9, 56 

to be paid by town, when 55 

Holidays 35 

Industrial school, truants committed to 43 

Infectious diseases 42 

Institute fund 60 

Institutes, how organized 49 

how paid for 49 

normal school teachers to assist at 51 

teachers may attend 40 

Keene Normal School, see normal schools. 

Literary fund 6 

distribution of 6 

for scholars attending high school 57 

how raised 6 

may be used for what 6 

penalty for misuse of 6 

unincorporated places may receive, when 6 

Manufacturing establishments, penalty for illegal employment of 

children in 45 

Mechanical, see manufacturing. 

Meetings, annual 19 

check-list at 21 

penalty for illegal voting at 22 

place of 20 



INDEX. 67 

Meetings, qualifications for voting at 21 

special, when held 20 

money raised at 20 

warrant for 20 

where held 20 

Mercantile, see manufacturing. 

Minimum school year 8 

Moderator of district, duty of 23 

how chosen 23 

power of 23 

Money, acts of town and district meetings, 1909, legalizing rais- 
ing of 62 

amount required by law 3 

in addition to 5 

apportionment upon dissolution of special district 14, 15 

appropriation of 3, 8 

assessed by selectmen 3, 4, 5 

assignment to districts 4 

dog tax 5 

for conveyance of scholars 32 

institutes 49 

high school tuition 3 

maintenance of high school 54 

in dissolved special dis- 
tricts 17 

statutory requirements 3 

superintendent ^s salary 61 

text-books and supplies 3 

literary fund, see literary fund. 

local 3,5 

may be used for what 4 

penalty for illegal use 5 

neglect to assess 4 

use 5 

raised at special meeting 20 



68 INDEX. 

Money raised by districts, for what 5, 10, 17 

salaries of officers 5, 37, 40 

how paid 5, 40 

state 6-10 

state aid, appropriation for 8 

average attendance basis 7 

for district supervision 8 

high school tuition 8, 9 

not received, when 8 

qualified teacher basis 7 

towns entitled to, when 7 

summary of sources of regular school revenue 9 

New Hampshire Genealogical Society 59 

Normal School at' Keene, appropriation for establishment 52 

contract with city 52 

establishment 52 

government 53 

maintenance 53 

at Plymouth, establishment 50 

maintenance 51 

trustees 50 

officers of board 50 

Normal schools, courses of studies at 51 

entrance examinations to 51 

graduates of, entitle district to state aid 7 

graduation from 51 

principals to elect assistants 51 

tuition at, free when 51 

trustees of, may contract with other towns 53 

to employ principal 51 

Officers of school districts 22 

auditor 24 

clerk 23 



INDEX. 69 

Officers of school districts, eligibility 23 

filling vacancies of 24 

manner of election of 23 

moderator 23 

term of office 23 

treasurer 24 

Parents to send children to school 46 

penalty for neglect of 46 

Parochial schools, scholars to be vaccinated 42 

Physiology and hygiene 33 

Private schools approved by school board 47 

scholars to be vaccinated 42 

Pupils, see scholars. 

Kebate for high school tuition 8, 9 

out of state 13 

Registers 36, 4S 

form prescribed by superintendent of public instruction 48 

furnished by state 36 

properly kept by teachers 36 

used in private schools 47 

Salaries of officers, how paid 40 

school boards 5, 37, 40 

superintendents 61 

truant officers 5, 37, 40 

Scholars, admitted to other districts 14 

dismissed, when 43 

penalty for attending school illegally 42 

to be excluded from school, when 43 

attend school, when 46 

where 43 

transportation of 32 

School boards may dismiss teachers, when 33 



70 INDEX. 

School boards, penalty for illegal use of money by 5 

neglect of duty 37 

to file reports 37 

power of, to prescribe regulations 33 

studies 33 

salaries of 37, 40 

to appoint truant officers 37 

approve private schools 47 

assign scholars to schools - 43 

convey pupils 32 

examine teachers 34 

file reports with selectmen 36 

superintendent of public in- 
struction 37 

hire teachers 32 

prosecute parents, when 47 

purchase flags 35 

text-books and supplies 34 

send notice to parents, when 47 

superintend evening schools 41 

town clerk to send superintendent of public instruc- 
tion names of 62 

day and week established 40 

penalty for disturbance of 47 

year, required length of 8 

Schoolhouse grounds, enlargement of 27 

shade trees for 30 

lots, selection and purchase of in cities 29 

Schoolhouses 26-32 

appraisal for land damages, appeal from 28 

when 27 

barbed-wire fences near 31 

building in cities 29 

district may take possession of land for, when. ... 28 

doors to open outward 30 



INDEX. 71 

Schoolhouses, fire-escapes on 30 

location of 26 

appeal to county commissioners 26 

by school board, when 26 

compensation of county commissioners 

in 27 

grievance on account of 26 

term of 27 

nuisance in vicinity of 31 

power of building committee 26 

saloons and 32 

selectmen may build, when 28 

selectmen may remove, when 28 

shall be used for what 29 

transferred to care of board by city councils 29 

Schools, provision of 32 

shall' be kept, where 29 

Secondary schools, districts to contract with 12 

outside the state 12, 13 

outside of state must be approved 13 

see high schools. 

Selectmen, reports to be filed with 36 

to assess for salaries 38 

Shade trees 30 

Special districts, dissolution of 14 

maintenance of high schools, when dissolved. . 16 

trust funds of 16 

Studies, how prescribed 33 

Summary of sources of regular school revenue 9, 10 

Superintendent of public instruction, appointment of 48 

biennial report of 48 

sent to 
school 

boards 50 

duties of 48 



72 INDEX. 



Superintendent of public instruction^ duties of, in connection with 

normal schools 

may appoint substitute to 

hold institutes 49 

reports to be filed with. . . 37 
to examine and certificate 

teachers 41 

furnish registers 36 

have power of truant 

officer 46 

hold institutes 49 

compile school laws, 

when 49 

enforce attendance laws, 

when 49 

prescribe form of reg- 
ister 48 

traveling expenses of ... . 46 
schools, district may require appoint- 
ment of 25, 59 

may be employed by two or 

more districts 60 

salary, how paid 61 

Supervision 59-61 

Supervisory district 60, 61 

how formed 60 

governed 60 

supported 61 

rebate from state 8 

size of 61 

withdrawal from 61 

Supplies, by whom purchased ' 34 

how paid for 34 

Tax, dog 5 



1 



INDEX. 73 

Tax for school purposes 3, 5 

of ward, where 4 

Taxes of district 11 

Teachers, dismissal of 33 

examination of 34, 41 

hiring of 32 

list of certificated 41 

may attend institutes 40 

right to hearing 33 

to keep registers 36 

Text-books, by whom purchased 34 

how paid for . . . . ; 34 

not to favor particular sect or party 35 

Town clerks to report local school board 62 

Transportation of scholars 32 

leasurer of district 24 

^officers, authority of 39 

duties of 38 

salaries of 37, 40 

|uperintendent of public instruction to have 

pwer of 46 

ippointed by whom 37 

pis, see normal schools. 

42 

20,21 

22 
^^^^^^^^^^^^ 21 

^^^^^^^^^^ 40 

Year, Tninitnutn 





■d ... 

state 



... 48 
.... 46 
^ appoint- 

: 25,59 

jjed by two or 

:Jts 60 

^9' paid 61 

59-61 

60,61 

. 60 

60 

61 



A from 



